Harmful Effects of Smoking

Nicotine and Tobacco products are to be the number one killer in the United States.

Cigarette smoking has been identified as the most important source of preventable morbidity (disease and illness) and premature mortality (death) worldwide. Smoking-related diseases claim an estimated 443,000 American lives each year, including those affected indirectly, such as babies born prematurely due to prenatal maternal smoking and victims of "secondhand" exposure to tobacco’s carcinogens. Smoking cost the United States over $193 billion in 2004, including $97 billion in lost productivity and $96 billion in direct health care expenditures, or an average of $4,260 per adult smoker.

Cigarette smoke contains over 4,800 chemicals, 69 of which are known to cause cancer. Smoking is directly responsible for approximately 90 percent of lung cancer deaths and approximately 80-90 percent of COPD (emphysema and chronic bronchitis) deaths.

 About 8.6 million people in the U.S. have at least one serious illness caused by smoking. That means that for every person who dies of a smoking-related disease, there are 20 more people who suffer from at least one serious illness associated with smoking.

 Among current smokers, chronic lung disease accounts for 73 percent of smoking-related conditions. Even among smokers who have quit chronic lung disease accounts for 50 percent of smoking-related conditions.

 

List of diseases CAUSED by Smoking

·       chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

·       coronary heart disease

·       stroke

·       abdominal aortic aneurysm

·       acute myeloid leukemia

·       cataract

·       pneumonia

Smokers die significantly earlier than nonsmokers: 13.2 years for men and 14.5 years for women. In Conclusion nonsmokers have more of a change to live healthy than smokers

Source:
American Lung Association