Smoking

• Tobacco use is directly responsible for more than 25 causes of death.
• Estimates are that 4 million people will die of tobacco-related illnesses worldwide this year; by the 2020's, the death toll will increase to 10 million deaths per year.
• In the US, cigarette smoking accounts for approximately 300,000 to 430,000 deaths (that's more than 10 times as many as die from breast cancer).
• Nearly 1 in 5 deaths in the US are related to smoking.
• Between one third and one half of all smokers will die prematurely of a disease caused by their tobacco use.
• Half of all heart related causes of death in women YOUNGER than 65 are due to cigarette smoking.
• One out of 3 cancer deaths are related to smoking.
• While smoking overall has decreased more than 40% since 1965, lung cancer deaths among women have increased 150% between 1974-1994 compared to only a 20% increase in men.
• Tobacco use does not just cause lung cancer:  it is linked to cancers of the mouth and throat, esophagus, pancreas, bladder, breast and cervix.
• Lung cancer surpassed breast cancer in 1987 as the leading cancer killer of women.
• Nearly 3,000 youths (under 18) begin to smoke regularly in the US each day. 
• 9 out of 10 smokers report that they started smoking before age 18.
• US cigarette use peaked in 1965 when 42% of adults smoked (50% of men and 32% of women).
• In 1997, nearly 25% of American adults (one in 4) smoked cigarettes:  28% of men and 22% of women.
• Smoking is more common among individuals with less education and lower income.
• Smoking prevalence varies by race:  34% of Native American adults smoke; 26% of African American adults smoke; 25% of Caucasian American adults smoke; 20% of Hispanic American adults smoke; and 17% of Asian American adults smoke.
• Parental smoking is one of the strongest risk factors for children and teens beginning to smoke. 
• Women who smoke during pregnancy have babies that weigh, on average, 7 ounces less than babies of nonsmoking mothers.  These babies show nicotine levels in their blood equal to adult levels. . .and they go through nicotine withdrawal in their first days of life.
• Mothers who smoke have children with significantly higher rates of ear infections, even when the mothers report that they "never" smoke in front of the child.
• SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) occurs more often in babies of smoking moms.
• Women who smoke are twice as likely to lose their vision, even after they quit.
• Women who smoke are 4 times as likely to have serious side effects from birth control pills.
• Nicotine is not only addictive, it is more addictive than most narcotics.
• The economic burden of tobacco use in the US is huge:  the annual toll of tobacco use is $50 billion in health care costs and $50 billion in indirect costs to society.
• 351,564 American children under age 18 will start smoking in 2001 alone; of these, 112,501 will eventually die from a smoking related illness.

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Source:  JAMA 8/9/00; facts on file, American Cancer Society

Created: 11/10/2000  -  Donnica Moore, M.D.