Smoking Facts You Need to Know
Written by: Kristi Smith
This informative fact sheet aims to provide everything you need to know about not only the health dangers of smoking cigarettes, but also the financial repercussions and the promising, positive benefits of quitting this most deadly habit.
The financial impact smoking has on individuals and on society as a whole continues to become more and more shocking as the actual price of cigarettes steadily rises along with the cost of health care. It's estimated that nearly $80 billion is spent each year in the U.S. alone on health care costs that are incurred from treating smoking related conditions and diseases.
Important Smoking Facts
- Smoking cigarettes is the number one preventable cause of all deaths.
- Quitting smoking provides immediate health benefits as well as more improvements over the long term. Minutes after smoking your last cigarette, your blood pressure and heart rate will both return to within their normal limits as your circulation also improves. 24 hours later your risk of having a heart attack decreases, and a few days after that, tissue within the lungs that isn't permanently damaged will begin the process of trying to heal.
- After 15 years of being completely smoke-free, an ex-smoker has about the same chances of having a stroke as someone who has never smoked in their lifetime.
- Nonsmokers have a significantly higher energy level than smokers as the carbon monoxide levels in the blood stream are affected by the smoke, causing one to feel tired and lethargic for no apparent reason.
- Besides the obvious lung cancer, smoking also contributes to cancer of the mouth, esophagus, larynx, pharynx, pancreas, and bladder.
- Cigarette smoke causes diseases and illnesses such as emphysema, chronic bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD), depression, diabetes, osteoporosis, and Alzheimer's disease.
- Sinus congestion or infections, chronic coughing, and shortness of breath will all eventually drastically improve or even completely disappear after becoming a non-smoker.
- Smoking during pregnancy seriously increases the risk of a stillbirth, as well as sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), and causes a decrease in birth weight.
Little Known Smoking Facts
- One in every four men smoke, and one in every women continues to smoke despite the numerous and startling health warnings.
- Secondhand smoke, also referred to as environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), is responsible for over 3,000 deaths each and every year in the United States.
- Smoking decreases levels of fertility in both men and women and also increases a man's chances of becoming impotent.
- Some of the numerous (over 4,000) chemicals that make up a cigarette include formaldehyde, insecticide, acetone, which is used in nail polish remover, and hydrazine (rocket fuel).
- 8 out of 10 smokers began their smoking habit before their 18th birthday.
- 8 out 10 smokers also report having extreme withdrawal symptoms when attempting to quit smoking, and the drug nicotine has been likened to heroin in terms of its addictive qualities.
- Some of the most popular methods people use to try to become healthy and smoke-free include nicotine replacement therapy, such as gums, patches or lozenges, as well as medications including varenicline or bupropion, both of which require a prescription from a physician.
- Every day, nearly 5,000 adolescents under 18 try smoking for the first time.
