Smoking, some statistics

Main Category: Smoking / Quit Smoking
Article Date: 20 Jun 2004 - 17:00 PST

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Smokers in their 30s and 40s are five times more likely to have a heart attack as nonsmokers of the same age, says WHO.
{Washington Post Health, June 26, 1997}

The addiction to smoking gives a 50% chance of killing the user: three times the risk of playing Russian roulette.
{ASH - Jan./Feb. 2000}

Tobacco is a mood-altering, addictive drug that kills 500,000 Americans (200 million worldwide) and costs $400 billion each year, according to "Smoking and Health Review," (1992). We are told by the American Lung Association that tobacco contains more than 4,000 chemicals, 60 of which cause cancer. Some of the 'killers' are radioactivity, arsenic, ammonia, lead, formaldehyde, nitrogen dioxide, cadmium, phenol, benzene and hydrogen cyanide (the 'gas chamber' gas that poisons the respiratory enzymes).

Although smoking is a constant and chronic irritant to the body tissues, it is also a high-priced addictive pleasure (and sometimes displeasure) that is costly, not only in dollars but lives as well. In the U.S. alone, cigarette smoking causes over 1,000 deaths a day or a half-a-million lives a year, is responsible for 25% of the cancer deaths, and 30 to 40% of coronary heart disease. Smoking decreases life expectancy for all age groups, and for those who must breathe the passive smoke. There are 4,000 chemicals (lead, cyanide, arsenic, etc.) in cigarette smoke and over 30 of them carcinogenic. The act of smoking desensitizes the smoker to outside stimuli, and it is estimated that a smoker costs an employer about $5,000 yearly.

Smoking has about a 50% chance of killing the smoker. This is three times the risk of playing a round of Russian roulette.
{"How YOU Pay The Price," ASH Smoking and Health Review, Jan./Feb. 2000}

WHO estimates that smoking kills more than four million people a year, This figure may rise to 10 million per year by 2030 because of surging tobacco use in developing countries.
{AP, "WHO accuses tobacco companies," HealthCentral.com - Aug. 2000}

At least 625,000 individuals in the Americas die each year from tobacco use, according to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). Tobacco use seems to be on the rise in most countries in the Americas. What is needed is for governments to implement the recommendations of a report of the World Bank that was released last year. Ways to reduce tobacco use: increase taxes, restrict advertising, restricting smoking indoors, and strong, meaningful, and visible warnings on cigarette packages.
{"Tobacco kills 625,000 in the Americas each year." Reuters Sept. 2000}

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