FACTS

1. Smoking leads to disease and disability and harms nearly every organ of the body.
2. More than 16 million Americans are living with a disease caused by smoking.
3. For every person who dies because of smoking, at least 30 people live with a serious smoking-related illness.
4. Smoking causes cancer, heart disease, stroke, lung diseases, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
5. Smoking also increases risk for tuberculosis, certain eye diseases, and problems of the immune system, including rheumatoid arthritis.
6. Smoking is a known cause of erectile dysfunction in males.
7. Smoking causes cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes and lung diseases (including emphysema, bronchitis and chronic airway obstruction).
8. Smokers typically inhale about 1 milligram (mg) of nicotine in a single cigarette.
9. Tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death in the world.

STATS

• On average, the life expectancy of a smoker is 10 years less than a non-smoker.
• Cigarette smoke contains more than 7,000 chemicals, 70 of which are known to cause cancer.
• Nearly 9 out of 10 smokers start before the age of 18 and almost all start smoking by age 26.
• Every day, more than 3,200 children and teens under 18 years old smoke their first cigarette. (There are also 2,100 young adults who turn into daily smokers each day.)
• For every person who dies from a smoking-related disease, 20 more people suffer from a smoking-related illness.
• Smoking and tobacco use causes more than 5 million deaths per year worldwide. Current trends show that this will increase to more than 8 million deaths annually by 2030.
• Smoking is responsible for about 1 in 5 deaths annually in the United States.
• Worldwide, tobacco use causes more than 7 million deaths per year.2 If the pattern of smoking all over the globe doesn’t change, more than 8 million people a year will die from diseases related to tobacco use by 2030.
• If smoking continues at the current rate among U.S. youth, 5.6 million of today’s Americans younger than 18 years of age are expected to die prematurely from a smoking-related illness.