Based on data collected from 1995 to 1999, the CDC estimated that adult male smokers lost an average of 13.2 years of life and female smokers lost 14.5 years of life because of smoking.

 

 

Tobacco use is responsible for nearly 1 in 5 deaths in the United States. Because cigarette smoking and tobacco use are acquired behaviors -- activities that people choose to do -- smoking is the most preventable cause of premature death in our society.

About half of all Americans who keep smoking will die because of the habit. Each year about 443,600 people in the United States die from illnesses related to tobacco use. Smoking cigarettes kills more Americans than alcohol, car accidents, suicide, AIDS, homicide, and illegal drugs combined.

Cigarette smoking accounts for at least 30% of all cancer deaths. It is a major cause of the following cancers: lung voice box (larynx) mouth (oral cavity) throat (pharynx) bladder the swallowing tube connected to the stomach (esophagus)

Smoking is responsible for about 87% of lung cancer deaths. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in both men and women, and is one of the most difficult cancers to treat. Lung cancer is a disease that can often be prevented. Some religious groups that promote non-smoking as part of their religion, such as Mormons and Seventh-day Adventists, have much lower rates of lung cancer and other smoking-related cancers.

Only about half of the deaths related to smoking are from cancer. Smoking is also a major cause of heart disease, aneurysms, bronchitis, emphysema, and stroke, and it makes pneumonia and asthma worse.

The smoke from cigarettes (called secondhand smoke or environmental tobacco smoke) has a harmful health effect on those exposed to it. Adults and children can have health problems from breathing secondhand smoke. (See our documents, Secondhand Smoke and Women and Smoking.)