Statistics and information concerning smoking

• Smoking is the number one medical cost in our society and the United States Surgeon General has identified smoking as the nation's most preventable cause of disease and death.
   
• Over 440,000 people die each year from smoking-related diseases.
   
• Smoking kills more people each year than AIDS, alcohol and drug abuse, car accidents, murders, suicides, and fires combined.
   
• Smoking is a primary risk factor in the top four causes of death (Heart Disease, Cancer, Stroke, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease).
   
• Cigarette smoke contains at least 60 individual cancer-causing chemicals and smoking is directly responsible for almost 90 percent of all lung cancers.
   
• Smoking causes most of the cases of emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
   
• Patients who smoke regularly before surgery have twice the risk of wound infections as nonsmokers.
   
• Smoking is a risk factor for osteoporosis (bone mineral loss), hip fractures, and spinal arthritis. A smoker's broken bones take almost twice as long to heal as a non-smoker's.
   
• Smoking causes premature facial wrinkling and graying of the skin.
   
• Smoking during pregnancy accounts for 20 – 30 percent of low birth-weight infants and up to 14% of pre-term births. Approximately 10 percent of all infant deaths are attributable to smoking.

Sources: American Cancer Society, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Office on Smoking & Health, National Cancer Institute