Fact Sheet - Tobacco

 

• Smoking by children and adolescents is associated with impaired lung growth, chronic coughing, and wheezing.

 

• Compared to nonsmokers, men who smoke are about 23 times more likely to develop lung cancer while women who smoke are about 13 times more likely. Smoking causes about 90% of lung cancer deaths in men and almost 80% in women.

 

• The 2004 U.S. Surgeon General’s Report newly identifies other cancers caused by smoking, including cancers of the stomach, cervix, kidney, and pancreas and acute myeloid leukemia.

 

• For women, the risk of cervical cancer increases with the duration of smoking.

 

• According to the American Cancer Society’s 2nd Cancer Prevention Study in the 1980s, female smokers were nearly 13 times more likely to die from COPD than women who had never smoked. Male smokers were nearly 12 times more likely to die from COPD than men who had never smoked.

 

• Nicotine reaches the brain within 10 seconds after smoke is inhaled. It has been found in every part of the body and in breast milk.

• Eliminating maternal smoking may lead to a 10% reduction in all infant deaths in the United States and a 12% reduction in deaths from perinatal conditions.

 

• Secondhand smoke contains more than 4,000 chemicals, 40 of which have been classified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as group A carcinogens, or those known to be carcinogenic to humans.

 

• When a young person inhales cigarette smoke it goes straight to the brain. In as few as 10 seconds, the pleasurable effect of smoking reaches its peak. Within a few minutes, the pleasure is gone, and the craving for another puff of smoke begins a new cycle.

• Tobacco use is considered the chief preventable cause of death in the U.S. with approximately one fifth of all deaths attributable to tobacco use.

• Secondhand smoke contains a complex mixture of more than 4,000 chemicals, more than 50 of which are cancer-causing agents (carcinogens).

 

• More than 6.4 million U.S. adolescents living today will die prematurely because they chose to smoke as teens.[2003 report]

• Each day in the United States, nearly 6,000 young people under the age of 18 will try a cigarette and nearly 3,000 will become regular smokers.

Bullets:  Remove Bullets  Disc ( )  Circle ( )  Square ( )  Clover ( )  Arrow ( )  Numbers (1, 2, 3...)