Nicotine is one of the three most widely used psychoactive drugs in our society. (The other two are caffeine and alcohol)
Nicotine and other ingredients in tobacco are responsible for a wide variety of health problems including cancer. They are directly linked to over 1,100 deaths of Americans each and every day!
Every day 3,000 children become regular smokers. Almost 1,000 of these will eventually die from nicotine related deaths.
9 in 10 smokers become addicted before the age of 21.
The Surgeon General stated, "Smoking will continue as the leading cause of preventable, premature death for many years to come."
Besides nicotine, there are at least 4,000 other compounds released by the burning of cigarettes most of which we have no idea what they could possibly do to harm the human body and mind!
Nicotine readily crosses the placental barrier and effects the fetus in the womb. A baby is unable to metabolize nicotine as fast as an adult since their liver is not fully developed and does not contain the necessary enzymes to do the work. This exposes the fetus to much higher doses of nicotine for longer periods of time than the smoking mother. Fetal damage can occur do to this increase in toxicity.
The ability of nicotine to cause vascular constriction in some blood vessels and vascular dilation in others can lead to angina or myocardial infarction (better known as a heart attack)! A smokers chances of coronary heart disease are 5 to 19 times that of non-smokers.
More than 435,000 cigarette/chewing-addicted Americans die yearly as a consequence of their addiction.
Evidence clearly identifies nicotine as a powerful drug of addiction, comparable to heroin, cocaine, and alcohol.
Of the more than 435,000 persons in the U.S. who die annually from tobacco use, 82,000 deaths are caused by non-cancerous lung diseases, 112,000 are caused by lung cancer, 30,000 are caused by cancers of other body organs, and more than 200,000 result from heart and vascular diseases.
A person's life is shortened 14 minutes for every cigarette smoked. (2 packs per day for 20 years = 8 years of lost life)
More than 50 million people alive today will die from the effects of tobacco.
Global tobacco use is responsible for about 2.5 million deaths/year.
70% of pulmonary diseases and deaths are tobacco-related; 57,000 deaths per year result from emphysema!
50% of the nearly 10,000 deaths every year that result from bladder cancer, are caused by cigarette smoking!
30% (154,000) cancer deaths per year could be avoided if people quit smoking!
4,000 persons die annually from lung cancer from other persons smoke!
37,000 additional deaths occur every year from heart disease caused by other people's smoke.
More than 2,000 infant deaths per year are attributed to mothers who smoke.
Children of smoking mothers have lower IQ's and a higher frequency rate for ADHD when compared with children of non-smoking mothers.
On the Light Side
All of these statistics and figures are reversible by simply quitting.