- Tobacco kills more people each year than suicides,
murders, cocaine, heroin, car accidents and AIDS combined.
- Of all young people in the United States who are currently
younger than 18, more than 5 million will die prematurely
from a smoking related disease.
- Teenage smokers suffer from shortness of breath almost
three times as often and produce phlegm more than twice
as often as teens who do not smoke.
- Cigarette products are among the most heavily advertised
and promoted products in the United States.
- This year tobacco companies will spend more than $11.2
billion on ads and promotions trying to get people to
smoke.
- The most recent data shows tobacco companies spend
$200.4 million marketing their products in Mississippi.
- $243 million is spent annually in Medicaid to treat
tobacco-related illnesses.
- Cigarettes contain more than 4,000 harmful chemicals,
including some found in rat poison and paint thinner.
Many of those chemicals are deadly. In fact, 43 are known
to be cancer-causing.
- Teens who smoke are three times as likely as nonsmokers
to use alcohol, eight times as likely to use marijuana,
and 22 times as likely to use cocaine.
- Cigarette smoking accounts for approximately 1 of 5
deaths each year.
- Studies have found nicotine to be addictive in ways
similar to those of heroin, cocaine and alcohol.
- About 3,000 nonsmokers die each year as a result of
secondhand smoke. Secondhand smoke causes colds, coughing,
earaches and asthma attacks.
- Of all young people in the United States who are currently
younger than 18, more than 5 million will die prematurely
from smoking-related diseases.
- Girls who smoke are more likely to get facial hair.
- Teens who smoke break out more and are more likely
to gain belly fat.
- The Marlboro man died from emphysema.
- Smokers earn 10% less money than non-smokers and over
6,000 companies do NOT hire smokers.
- Cigarette smoke causes asthma in cats.
Sources: Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids,
www.tobaccofreekids.org, Federal Trade Commission, www.ftc.gov,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, www.cdc.gov,
FREE web site, www.generationFREE.com
- Smokeless tobacco is not a safe alternative to cigarettes.
- Smokeless tobacco can cause gum disease and cancer of
the mouth, pharynx, esophagus and pancreas.
- It may also increase the risk of heart disease and stroke.
- Smokeless tobacco use can lead to irreversible gum recession.
- Smokeless tobacco contains 28 cancer-causing agents (carcinogens).
It is a known cause of human cancer, as it increases the
risk of developing cancer of the oral cavity. Oral health
problems strongly associated with smokeless tobacco use
are leukoplakia (a lesion of the soft tissue that consists
of a white patch or plaque that cannot be scraped off)
and recession of the gums.
- An estimated 7 percent of high school students are current
smokeless tobacco users. Smokeless tobacco is more common
among males (11 percent) than female high school students
(2 percent).
- Estimates by race/ethnicity are 8 percent for white,
5 percent for Hispanic, and 3 percent for African-American
high school students.
- An estimated 3 percent of middle school students are
current smokeless tobacco users. Smokeless tobacco is more
common among males (4 percent) than female (2 percent)
middle school students. Estimates by race/ethnicity are
3 percent for white, 1 percent for Asian, 2 percent for
African-American, and 4 percent for Hispanic middle school
students.
- Teens that use smokeless tobacco are more likely to become
cigarette smokers.
Sources: Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids,
www.tobaccofreekids.org, Federal Trade Commission, www.ftc.gov,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, www.cdc.gov,
FREE web site, www.generationFREE.com.
- Secondhand smoke has been classified by the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) as a known cause of cancer in
humans (Group A carcinogen).
- Secondhand smoke exposure causes disease and premature
death in children and adults who do not smoke. Secondhand
smoke contains hundreds of chemicals known to be toxic
or carcinogenic, including formaldehyde, benzene, vinyl
chloride, arsenic ammonia and hydrogen cyanide.
- Secondhand smoke causes approximately 3,400 lung cancer
deaths and 46,000 heart disease deaths in adult nonsmokers
in the United States each year.
- Nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke at work are at
increased risk for adverse health effects. Levels of ETS
in restaurants and bars were found to be 2 to 5 times higher
than in residences with smokers and 2 to 6 times higher
than in office workplaces.
- Since 1999, 70 percent of the U.S. workforce worked under
a smoke-free policy, ranging from 83.9 percent in Utah
to 48.7 percent in Nevada. Workplace productivity was increased
and absenteeism was decreased among former smokers compared
with current smokers.
- Secondhand smoke is especially harmful to young children.
Secondhand smoke is responsible for between 150,000 and
300,000 lower respiratory tract infections in infants and
children under 18 months of age, resulting in between 7,500
and 15,000 hospitalizations each year, and causes 430 sudden
infant death syndrome (SIDS) deaths in the United States
annually.
- Secondhand smoke exposure may cause buildup of fluid
in the middle ear, resulting in 790,000 physician office
visits per year.
- Secondhand smoke can also aggravate symptoms in 400,000
to 1,000,000 children with asthma.
- Approximately 50-75 percent of children in the United
States have detectable levels of cotinine, the breakdown
product of nicotine in the blood.
- New research indicates that private research conducted
by cigarette company Philip Morris in the1980s showed that
secondhand smoke was highly toxic, yet the company suppressed
the finding during the next two decades.
- The current Surgeon General's Report concluded that scientific
evidence indicates that there is no risk-free level of
exposure to second hand smoke. Short exposures to second
hand smoke can cause blood platelets to become stickier,
damage the lining of blood vessels, decrease coronary flow
velocity reserves, and reduce heart rate variability, potentially
increasing the risk of heart attack.
SMARTalk (Settlement Money and Resources Talk) is a private
network of tobacco control advocates, hosted by the Campaign
for Tobacco-Free Kids, that focuses primarily on state
and local tobacco prevention issues. While much of the
information and most of the materials posted on Smartalk
are public documents or public information that can be
freely distributed (e.g., press releases, TFK factsheets),
other email text and attached materials (especially discussions
or materials relating to legislative strategies) are meant
only for consideration and comment by Smartalk members
and should not be distributed further without first obtaining
permission from the person who sent the related email.
If it is not obvious to you whether something you have
received over Smartalk can be distributed freely or not,
just ask the original sender. If you have any questions
about Smartalk, or want to be removed from Smartalk or
nominate a new member, please send an email to smartalk@tobaccofreekids.org.
MMWR Highlights:
Smoking-attributable Mortality
Each year from 2000-2004 approximately 443,000 people
in the United States died prematurely as a result of cigarette
smoking or exposure to secondhand smoke.
This figure is higher than the average annual estimate
of approximately 438,000 deaths from 1997 to 2001 and
is predominantly due to population growth. Although deaths
from cigarette smoking have not increased significantly
they remain high.
Among adults, 160,848 (41%) of deaths were attributed
to cancer, 128,497 (32.7%) to cardiovascular diseases,
and 103,338 (26.3%) to respiratory diseases.
The three leading specific causes of smoking-attributable
death were lung cancer at 128,922, ischemic heart disease
at 126,005, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
at 92,915.
An estimated 49,400 lung cancer and heart disease deaths
annually were attributable to exposure to secondhand smoke.
Smoking resulted in an estimated annual average of 270,000
deaths among males and 174,000 among females in the U.S.
For females, smoking during pregnancy resulted in an estimated
776 infant deaths annually during 2000-2004.
The average annual smoking-attributable mortality estimates
also include 736 deaths from residential fires caused by
smoking.
Years of Potential Life Lost
On average, during 2000-2004 smoking accounted for an
estimated 3.1 million years of potential life lost for
males and 2.0 million for females annually, excluding deaths
from residential fires and adult deaths from secondhand
smoke.
MMWR Highlights:
Approximately 19.8% (43.4 million) of adults were current
smokers in 2007, a decrease of 1.0 percentage point from
2006 (20.8%)
After 3 years during which prevalence in current cigarette
smoking among adults remained virtually unchanged (20.9%
in 2004, 20.9% in 2005, and 20.8% in 2006), the prevalence
in 2007 (19.8%) was significantly lower than in 2006.
In 2007, 77.8% (33.8 million) of current smokers smoked
every day and 22.2% (9.6 million) smoked some days.
Quit Attempts
In 2007, the proportion of current everyday smokers who
tried to quit was 53.1% among ages 18-24 years, 39.9% among
ages 25-44 years, 38.1% among 45-64 year olds and 25.3%
among those 65 years and older.
In 2007, 39.8% (13.4 million) adult current everyday smokers
had stopped smoking for more than one day in the past 12
months because they were trying to quit.
Among the estimated 86.8 million adults who had smoked
at least 100 cigarettes in their lifetime (defined as ever
smokers), 52.1% (47.3 million) were no longer smoking at
the time of the interview.
Smoking and U.S. Demographics
Smoking prevalence was higher among men (22.3%) than women
(17.4%).
The prevalence of smoking among women has remained below
20% for five consecutive years (19.2% in 2003 and 17.4%
in 2007); however, variability existed among the subgroups
of women.
Among the different racial/ethnic groups, Asians (9.6%)
had the lowest smoking prevalence while American Indians
and Alaska Natives (36.4%) had significantly higher prevalence
than the other racial/ethnic groups. Smoking prevalence
among whites (21.4%) and blacks (19.8%) was significantly
higher than among Hispanics (13.3%).
Adults who had a General Education Development (GED) diploma
(44.0%) and those with 9-11 years of education (33.3%)
had the highest prevalence of current smoking. Those who
had an undergraduate or graduate degree had the lowest
smoking prevalence (11.4% and 6.2%, respectively).
 CDC Press Release - Slightly Lower Adult Smoking Rates
CDC MMWR - Cigarette Smoking Among Adults - United States,
2007
Tobacco Policy Project - Big Tobacco On Campus
MCIC Newsletter, November 2008
ACT Center for Tobacco Treatment, Education and Research |
