Smoking

Smoking causes heart disease, lung cancer, emphysema and other chronic lung diseases. It can also damage lung function, raise blood pressure and cause other diseases. Women who smoke during pregnancy are at an increased risk for miscarriage, preterm births, low birth weight babies and infant deaths. Cigarette smoking is the leading preventable cause of disease and death in the United States. Each year, over 440,000 Americans die prematurely from smoking-related diseases. Quiting smoking lowers a person's risk of heart disease even after many years of smoking.

Preventing people from starting the use of tobacco is essential for reducing the death and disease rates caused by tobacco use. Approximatly 80% of tobacco users started before they were 18 years old. If current tobacco use patterns continue, approximatly 5 million people in the United States, who are now under age 18, will die from a smoking-related disease. If young people decide to be tobacco free they are likely to remain so for the rest of their lives.

Secondhand smoke is a mixture of the smoke given off by the burning end of a cigarette, pipe, or cigar, and the smoke exhaled from the lungs of smokers. This mixture contains more than 4,000 substances, more than 40 of which are known to cause cancer in humans or animals and many of which are strong irritants. Resolve now not to smoke around the ones you love.

For more information about Tobacco related questions or to help in the fight against tobacco, please visit these web sites: