Cigarette Smoking: Harmful

Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of premature death in the United States. It is estimated that directly or indirectly, tobacco causes more than 400,000 deaths in the United States annually; a figure that represents nearly 20 percent of all U.S. deaths. These deaths have been attributed to a number of conditions defined as tobacco-related. Cigarette Smoking harms nearly every organ of the body, causes many diseases and reduces the health of smokers in general.

Smoking and Death

• As said before Smoking causes many deaths.
• The adverse health effects from cigarette smoking account for an estimated 443,000 deaths, or nearly one of every five deaths, each year in the United States.
• More deaths are caused each year by tobacco use than by all deaths from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, suicides, and murders combined.2,4
• Smoking causes an estimated 90% of all lung cancer deaths in men and 80% of all lung cancer deaths in women.
• An estimated 90% of all deaths from chronic obstructive lung disease are caused by smoking.1
• Compared with nonsmokers, smoking is estimated to increase the risk of:
• Coronary heart disease by 2 to 4 times. The leading death in the United States
• Stroke by 2 to 4 times
• Men developing lung cancer by 23 times
• Women developing lung cancer by 13 times, and lung diseases such as diseases (e.g., emphysema, bronchitis, chronic airway obstruction) by damaging the airways and alveoli (i.e., small air sacs) of the lungs.
• Dying from chronic obstructive lung diseases (such as chronic bronchitis and emphysema) by 12 to 13 times.1
• Cigarette smoking causes reduced circulation by narrowing the blood vessels (arteries) and puts smokers at risk of developing peripheral vascular disease (i.e., obstruction of the large arteries in the arms and legs that can cause a range of problems from pain to tissue loss or gangrene).
• Smoking causes abdominal aortic aneurysm (i.e., a swelling or weakening of the main artery of the body—the aorta—where it runs through the abdomen).

Smoking causes the following cancers:

• Acute myeloid leukemia
• Bladder cancer
• Cancer of the cervix
• Cancer of the esophagus
• Kidney cancer
• Cancer of the larynx (voice box)
• Lung cancer
• Cancer of the oral cavity (mouth)
• Pancreatic cancer
• Cancer of the pharynx (throat)
• Stomach cancer

Smoking has many adverse reproductive and early childhood effects, including increased risk for—

• Infertility
• Preterm delivery
• Stillbirth
• Low birth weight
• Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)

For more information on the effects of Cigarette Smoking go to: cdc.gov