Here are some
more of the facts about the dangers of smoking
Fact: Cigarette smoking has been identified
as the most important source of preventable morbidity and
premature mortality worldwide. Smoking is responsible for
approximately one in five deaths in the United States. From
1995 to 1999, smoking killed over 440,000 people in the
United States each year. This includes an estimated 264,087
male and 178,311 female deaths annually.
Fact: Excluding adult deaths from exposure
to secondhand smoke, adult males and females lost an average
of 13.2 and 14.5 years of life respectively, because they
smoked.
Fact: Smoking cost the economy over $150
billion in annual health care costs and lost productivity
between 1995 to 1999, including $81.9 billion in mortality-related
productivity losses and $75.5 billion in excess medical
expenditures.
Fact: Over 85% of smokers say that cigarettes
are addictive. Sixty percent of light smokers (1-15 cigarettes
per day) have at least one indicator of addiction. The high
rate of relapse is a consequence of the effect of nicotine
dependence.
Fact: Forty-nine states and the District
of Columbia have some restriction on smoking in public places;
Alabama has no state-imposed limits on smoking in public
places. These laws range from simple, limited restrictions,
such as designated areas in schools, to laws that limit
or ban smoking in virtually
all public places. Of the states that limit or prohibit
smoking in public places, 45 restrict smoking in government
workplaces and 24 have extended those limitations to private
sector workplaces.
Fact: Ten years after smoking cessation,
lung cancer risks are the same as in nonsmokers and fifteen
years after smoking cessation, heart-disease risks resemble
those of nonsmokers.
Some
adverse health effects of smoking: |
- Cigarettes
contain at least 43 individual cancer-causing chemicals
and smoking is directly responsible for almost 90%
of all lung cancers.
-
Smoking causes most of the cases of emphysema and
chronic bronchitis.
-
Smoking during pregnancy accounts for 20 - 30% of
low birthweight infants and up to 14% of preterm
births. Approximately 10% of all infant deaths are
attributable to smoking.
-
Apparently healthy, full-term infants of smokers
have been found to be born with narrowed airways
and impaired lung function.
-
Smoking by parents (second hand smoke) is associated
with adverse effects in their children such as exacerbations
of asthma, increased upper respiratory infections
(colds, ear infections, etc.) and SIDS (sudden infant
death syndrome). Children under 18 months of age
are very susceptible to secondhand smoke causing
lower respiratory tract infections.
-
Secondhand smoke is responsible for 3,000 lung cancer
deaths annually in U.S. nonsmokers.
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