Smoking Statistics

Heard enough?
Then keep on reading.

• How many people died of lung cancer in 2008? Answer: 1.4 million. Lung cancer is the leading cause of deaths worldwide...
  • Every year 1.4 million people worldwide die from lung cancer. Smoking tobacco cigarettes has been cited as the single number one cause of lung cancer.

• You have an enormously increased risk of heart disease by continuing to smoke tobacco...
  • In the U.S. an estimated 26.2 million men and 20.9 million women smoke tobacco cigarettes. These people are at a much higher risk for devastating heart disease.

• 1 in 10 adults are killed by tobacco smoking related diseases. That’s 4 million deaths worldwide. These statistics are global!...
  • Smoking related diseased are responsible for the deaths of husbands and wives across the globe, and in every country.

• Someone dies from tobacco use every 8 seconds. In the time it took you to read this sentence, someone has died of a smoking-related illness...
  • In the thirty muinits it takes the average person to get ready for work, this number has reached a stunning 225 deaths.

• What country has cited 12 times more people dead from smoking cigarettes than from all of World War II combined? Answer...
  • These statistices are cited in from Britain alone, a country bombed for 57 consecutive nights during "The Blitz" in 1940.

• Over 1 in 5 deaths in America are caused by cigarette smoking. This is TWICE the world average...
  • The world average is 1 in 10 adults dead of smoking related illnesses.

• A survey in the UK found about half of those that smoke tobacco cigarettes think that smoking "can’t really be all that dangerous,,,
  • or the Government wouldn’t let cigarettes be advertised". We invite individuals from the UK to read the rest of this page.

Heard enough?
Then keep on reading.

• 1/2 of ALL long-term smokers will die from tobacco-related disease. Do you and your wife smoke? Mother and father?...

• Smoking cigarettes causes approximately 440,000 premature deaths in the United States every year.
  • These tobacco smoking statistics were cited 10 - 15 years ago (from 1995 to 1999)! The numbers have grown at an alarming rate ever since.

• Do men or women loose more more of their lifespan from smoking? Answer: Men who have smoked lose approximately 13.2 years of potential life...
  • For women it is about 14.5 years of life lost.

·         Over 8 million people in the USA are currently suffering from illnesses caused by tobacco cigarettes.

•  
  • That would be like every resident of the state of New Jersey being sick with chronic bronchitis, emphysema, or cancer.

·         Question: Are the numbers of nonsmoking Americans exposed to second hand smoke DOUBLE that of actual cigarette smokers?...

o        Answer: Yes. 45 million adult smokers vs. 126 million nonsmokers. In fact that is more than double.

·         Question: If New York was populated only by 'children' between 3 and 11, it would represent the number of children exposed to secondhand smoke...

o        ... by over half of the smoking population in the USA today... 22 million children in the U.S. are exposed in this way.

• Question Are you statistically more likely to loose your job if you are an adult smoker? Or not find a job in hard times due to smoking tobacco?...
  • The economic perspective of hiring staff and business managers show that 'a smoking employee' simply costs more and is less productive than a 'non smoker'. 

• Question: Can Workmans Compensation statistics prove that smoking tobacco is loosing you money and job time due to your inability to work?...
  • Answer: Businesses pay an average of 10 times more in workers’ compensation costs for cigarette smokers versus nonsmokers: $2,189 compared to $176, respectively.

• Employers prefer to hire those that do not smoke due to the increase in insurance costs, workers compensation, and loss in productivity for smokers ...
  • who use tobacco cigarettes. Thus, you are more likely to lose your job or not get a job as a tobacco smoker.

• Six times more smokers are forced retire early from becoming disabled...
  • than whose who are non smokers.

• The cost of smoking a pack a day currently comes to about $2000 a year! This does not include a smokers medical expenses, health problems or...
  • missed social opportunity. That is just the dollar amount out of pocket per year. A pack of cigarettes costs about $5 to $6 in the U.S. currently.

• According to the American Cancer Society's second Cancer Prevention Study, male smokers were nearly 12 times as likely to die from *chronic...
  •  obstructive pulmonary disease as men who had never smoked. *COPD includes chronic bronchitis and chronic emphysema.

• Men who smoke cigarettes may experience a significant decline in their capacity to father a child, as research by reproductive medicine specialist..
  • from the University at Buffalo has shown.

Heard enough?
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• Men who smoke cigarettes run an increased risk of experiencing erectile dysfunction, and the more cigarettes smoked, the greater the risk...
  • according to a study by Tulane University researchers published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

• A British survey found that nearly 99% of women do not know about the link between smoking tobacco and cervical cancer...
  • smoking tobacco exposes the body to many cancer causing chemicals

• Cigarette smoking kills an estimated 178,000 women in the United States every year. That is more than the number of women who VOLUNTEERED to fight...
  • for freedom by being deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan as part of U.S. military operations since 2002.

• Women who smoke tobacco cigarettes are about two times as likely as non-smokers to get cervical cancer. Cervical cancer also tends to occur in midlife...
  • with most cases are found in women younger than 50.

• Women who smoke tobacco cigarettes are at an increased risk for infertility. Studies show that smoking makes it more difficult for women to become pregnant...

• Female smokers were nearly 13 times as likely to die from *COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease)  as women who had never smoked...
  • *chronic bronchitis and chronic emphysema according to the American Cancer Society's second Cancer Prevention Study.

• Smoking reduces bone density among menopausal women. Osteoporosis occurs when your bones lose a certain percentage of their mineral density...
  • This can lead to severe fractures, including those in the hip and spine. These fractures can be very painful and may limit your independence and freedom.

• Tobacco by-products have been found in the cervical mucus of women who smoke. Researchers believe that these substances damage the DNA of...
  • cervix cells and may contribute to the development of cervical cancer.

• Question: How seriously does smoking tobacco affect the hearts of your nonsmoking co-workers, friends, or family?...
  • Answer: Nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke at home or at work are known to increase their risk of heart disease by 25 to 30 percent.

• Almost 60 percent of children of ages 3-11 are exposed to secondhand smoke. This is almost 22 million children on in the U.S. alone...

• Statistically, children around the world are exposed to more secondhand smoke than adults in similar circumstances...
  • Thankfully, due to increased responsibility, there has been a decline in the number of children exposed to secondhand smoke in the US since the past 15 years.

• Of the 22 million children ages 3-11 that are exposed to secondhand smoke 25% live with adults who smoke cigarettes...
  • This is as compaired to the 7% of them living with adults that do not smoke. 

Heard enough?
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• Many prominant medical facilities (such as the EPA) has termed secondhand smoke as "cancer causing". Further, the Surgeon General...
  • has instituted warnings required on each pack of cigarettes marking them as harmfull to your overall health. *the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

• Smoking cigarettes doesn’t just cause lung cancer. It is a prime factor in heart disease, stroke, and cancers affecting the cervix, pancreas, bladder and...
  • many other bodily organs.

• Cigarette smokers are 2 to 4 times more likely to develop coronary heart disease than nonsmokers...

• Cigarette smoking is a powerful independent risk factor for sudden cardiac death in patients with coronary heart disease...

• Cancer caused by smoking tobacco is the single largest PREVENTABLE cause of disease and premature death...

• Cigarette smoking approximately DOUBLES a person’s risk for stroke...

• Cigarette smokers are more than 10 times as likely to develop peripheral vascular disease. These are diseases of the blood vessels outside the heart and brain...
  • and most commonly in the arms and legs.

• Health care costs for smokers are estimated to be as much as 40% higher than those for nonsmokers. A smokers body also takes signifigantly longer to heal...
  • - time out to get teeth fixed (receding gums), getting the flu, or a case of bronchitis are only a few examples.

• 1 in 4 deaths from heart diseases are related to smoking tobacco...

• Strangely, air pollution (auto exhausts, industry wastes, etc.) increases the lung cancer rate of smokers, but not of non-smokers? Non smokers lung-cleaning... 
  • cilia are alive and working for the non-smoker, whereas a smoker does not retain this same protection.

• The time to recover from any illness, whether caused by smoking tobacco cigarettes or not, is much longer for the smoker. A non-smoker will survive a sickness...
  • from which he often would have died had he smoked.

• Smoking cigarettes can cause increased frequency of colds, particularly chest colds and bronchitis. This can translate to lost productivity at work and play...

• The illnesses that smoking cigarettes can cause are many in number, and while not always fatal, they certainly cause a smoker a lot of suffering: asthma, neuralgia,...
  • gastrointestinal difficulties, constipation, sinus inflammation, pneumonia, influenza, diarrhea, and colitis, ulcers, heart disease, emphysema, lung cancer and many other cancers.  

• The average smoker has 4 to 6 times the chance of having heart disease if he's in the 45-55 year age group...
  • This is based upon an average of 30 tobacco cigarettes per day.

• Smoking tobacco cigarettes harms nearly every organ of the body, causing many diseases and reducing the smokers health in general...

• The list of diseases caused by smoking cigarettes has been expanded to include abdominal aortic aneurysm, acute myeloid leukemia, cataract, cervical cancer,...
  • kidney cancer, pancreatic cancer, pneumonia, periodontitis, and stomach cancer. These are in addition to diseases previously known to be caused by smoking.

• Former tobacco smokers have lower rates of stomach cancer than those who continue to smoke. This is also the case with almost ALL other forms of cancer...
  • as smoking is widely known for increasing the risks of cancer overall.

• Among U.S. smokers, 90% of benzene exposures comes from tobacco cigarettes. Benzene is a known cause of acute myleoid leukemia, and cigarette smoke...
  • is a major source of benzene exposure.

• Cancer is the second leading cause of death and was among the first diseases directly linked to smoking...

• Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths, and cigarette smoking causes most of the recorded cases of lung cancer worldwide...

• Compared to nonsmokers, men who smoke are about 23 times more likely to develop lung cancer and women who smoke are about 13 times...
  • more likely to develop it.

• Smoking tobacco cigarettes causes about 90% of lung cancer deaths in men and almost 80% in women...

• For smoking-attributable cancers, the risk increases with the number of cigarettes smoked and the number of years of smoking, and decreases after quitting...
  • tobacco smoking completely.

• Little known fact: Smoking cigarettes that have a lower yield of tar DOES NOT substantially reduce the risk for lung cancer...

• Coronary heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S., and also the leading cause of death caused by smoking...

• Coronary heart disease and stroke (the primary types of cardiovascular disease caused by smoking) are the first and third leading causes of death in... 
  • the United States. More than 2,600 Americans die every day because of cardiovascular diseases, about 1 death every 33 seconds.

• Cigarette smoking has been directly associated with sudden cardiac deaths of all types in both men and women...

• Strokes are the third leading cause of death in the United States. Cigarette smoking is a major cause of strokes...

• Cigarette smoking relates to the first, second, third, and fourth causes of death in the U.S. That's heart disease, lung cancer, stroke, and COPD... 
  • (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) respectively. 

• Respiratory disease is an all too common side effect of smoking. The occasional 'smoker's cough' is often the first signal of trouble in the lungs...
  • Chronic bronchitis usually follows, and if left unchecked, the end result can be emphysema.

• In 2001, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) was the fourth leading cause of death in the United States, resulting in more than 118,000 deaths...
  • More than 90% of these deaths were attributed to smoking.

• About 10 million people in the United States have been diagnosed with COPD, which includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema...
  • COPD is consistently among the top 10 most common chronic health conditions and is very commonly caused by tobacco smoking.

• Smokers just get sick more often. People who smoke cigarettes are more likely than nonsmokers to have upper and lower respiratory tract infections...
  • perhaps because smoking suppresses immune function.

• It is a medical fact that in general, smokers' lung function declines faster than that of nonsmokers...

• The health benefits of cessation (ceasing, stopping, or pausing) start within MUINITS of the last tobacco cigarette you smoked. Benifits continue to increase...
  • dramatically over time as the body begins to cover lost abilities.

• Cataracts are the leading cause of blindness worldwide. Smoking has been related to nuclear cataracts of the lens of the eye, the most common type of cataract...
  • in the United States. Cataract are a leading cause of visual loss in the United States. Smokers have two to three times the risk of developing cataracts as nonsmokers.

• Carbon monoxide, found in high levels in cigarette smoke, binds to hemoglobin in red blood cells, preventing the affected cells from carrying a full load of oxygen...

• Smoking affects the function of the immune system and may increase the risk for respiratory and other infections...

• Smoking cigarettes accelerates the aging process. One of the ways is through oxidative stress that mutates DNA, promotes atherosclerosis, and leads to...
  • chronic lung injury. 

• The body produces antioxidants to help repair damaged cells. Smokers have lower levels of antioxidants in their blood than do nonsmokers...

• Smoking is associated with higher levels of chronic inflammation, another damaging process that may result in oxidative stress which speeds up aging...

• Cigarette smokers have a harder time healing from surgeries, and have more overall health issues than do nonsmokers...
  • This results in more time away from work, and more doctor and hospital visits. 

• The cost to a smoker isn't just money spent on cigarettes. There is also working time lost from being sick...
  • Smokers are more likely to be absent from work than nonsmokers, and their illnesses last longer...

• Those that smoke cigarettes tend to incur more medical costs, see physicians more often in the outpatient setting...
  • and are admitted to the hospital more often and for longer periods than nonsmokers.

• Smokers have a lower survival rate after surgery compared to that of nonsmokers because of damage to the body's host defenses...
  •  delayed wound healing, and reduced immune response.
•  
• Smokers are at greater risk for complications following surgery, including wound infections,...
  •  postoperative pneumonia, and other respiratory complications.

• Periodontitis, a serious gum disease that can result in the loss of teeth, is causally related to smoking tobacco...
  • This may be because smoking affects the body's ability to fight infection and repair tissue.

• Smokers are more likely to develop peptic ulcers than nonsmokers.
  • In severe cases, peptic ulcers can lead to death

• Half of long-term smokers will die from tobacco. Let us repeat...that's 1 out of EVERY 2 people that smoke cigarettes over a long time period...

·         The smoker is sick more often, explaining why he misses an average of 7½ work days per year..

o        usually with a loss of pay while the non-smoker will miss only 4½ days.

• Smoking cigarettes does not look good. It can cause stained teeth, fingers, and hair...
  • shortness of breath, smoker's hack, wrinkles and premature aging. It can also cause decreased sexual activity, mental depression, and insomnia.

• Many of the over 4,000 chemicals in tobacco smoke damage collagen and elastin, the fibers that give your skin its youthful looking strength and elasticity.
  •  This leads to a smoker developing wrinkles and looking older than they are.

• Risk of death is 3.5 to 5 times greater for obese smokers than it is for people who have never smoked and are at a normal weight...

• Of the many deadly byproducts in cigarette smoke, one in particular was used to kill roughly 1.2 during WWII...
  • Hydrogen cyanide was used as a method of genocide in Nazi death camps. 

• Tobacco cigarette smoke contains known radioactive carcinogens...
  • Radioactive lead and polonium are both present in smoke.

• Of the 50 cancer-causing chemicals in second hand smoke 11 are known to be Group 1 carcinogens which are...
  • agents that are carcinogenic to humans. 

• Think smoking "light cigarettes" will save you? Studies show there is "little effect" on reducing the risk of coronary heart disease...
  • by smoking low-tar cigarettes...

• People who switch to smoking low-tar or light cigarettes from regular still inhale the same amount of cancer-causing toxins and they remain at HIGH RISK...
  •  for developing smoking-related cancers and other diseases.

• “Light” cigarettes just as dangerous as regular cigarettes when smokers "compensate"…
  • When smoking low-tar and low nicotine cigarettes smokers often “compensate” by inhaling more deeply; taking larger, more rapid, or more frequent puffs; or by increasing the number of cigarettes smoked per day. As a result, smokers cancel out any potential benefit of smoking a "low-tar" cigarette.

• The smoke from a smoldering tobacco cigarette much more toxic than the smoke that is exhaled…

• Secondhand smoke has resulted in the increase of heart disease as well as lung cancer risk among the adult population.

• Tobacco cigarettes are the LEADING cause of home fire fatalities in the United States, killing 700 to 900 people – smokers and nonsmokers alike – per year.

• ¼ of victims of *smoking-material fire fatalities are NOT the smokers whose cigarettes started the fire: 34 percent are children of the smokers…
  • 25 percent are neighbors or friends; 14 percent are spouses or partners; and 13 percent are parents. (*lighted tobacco products including cigarettes

• The danger of falling asleep while smoking tobacco: Between 1999 and 2003, almost half (43%) of fatal home smoking-material fire victims were sleeping when injured…
  • one-third (32%) were attempting to escape, to fight the fire, or to rescue others.

• Family members of smokers lose income through time taken looking after smokers when they are sick and time lost taking them to hospital.

• It’s more than just the cost of a pack of cigarettes…
  • Smokers also have to shoulder higher health insurance premiums, and many other miscellaneous costs, such as increased wear and tear on their home, as well as increased fire risk. 

• At 1 pack a day, that is 1013.89 days are REMOVED FROM YOUR LIFE by smoking from age 20 to age 60, and more as time goes on…
  • According to statistics, every cigarette smoked cuts at least five minutes of the average life-span.