About half of all Americans who continue to smoke will die because of the habit. Each year about 438,000 people in the United States die from illnesses related to cigarette smoking. Cigarettes kill more Americans than alcohol, car accidents, suicide, AIDS, homicide, and illegal drugs combined.

Cancer

Cigarette smoking accounts for at least 30% of all cancer deaths. It is a major cause of cancers of the lung, larynx (voice box), oral cavity, pharynx (throat), esophagus (swallowing tube connected to the stomach), and bladder, and it contributes to the development of cancers of the pancreas, cervix, kidney, stomach, and also some leukemias.

Smoking is responsible for about 87% of lung cancer deaths. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in both men and women, and is one of the most difficult cancers to treat. Lung cancer is a disease that can in many cases be prevented. Groups that promote non-smoking as part of their religion, such as Mormons and Seventh-day Adventists, have much lower rates of lung cancer and other smoking-related cancers.

Other Health Problems

Only about half of the deaths related to smoking are from cancer. Smoking is also a major cause of heart disease, aneurysms, bronchitis, emphysema, and stroke, and it makes pneumonia and asthma worse.

Using tobacco can also damage a woman's reproductive health. Tobacco use is linked with reduced fertility and a higher risk of miscarriage, early delivery (premature birth), stillbirth, infant death, and is a cause of low birth-weight in infants. It has also been linked to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

Smoking has also been linked to other health problems, including gum disease, cataracts, bone thinning, hip fractures, and peptic ulcers. It is also linked to macular degeneration, an eye disease that can cause blindness.

Furthermore, the smoke from cigarettes (called secondhand smoke or environmental tobacco smoke) has a harmful health effect on those exposed to it. (See the American Cancer Society documents, Secondhand Smoke and Women and Smoking.)

Effects on Quantity and Quality of Life

Based on data collected from 1995 to 1999, the CDC estimated that adult male smokers lost an average of 13.2 years of life and female smokers lost 14.5 years of life because of smoking.

But not all of the health problems related to smoking result in deaths. Smoking generally affects a smoker's health, harming nearly every organ of the body, and causing many diseases. According to the CDC in 2000, about 8.6 million people had at least one chronic disease because they smoked or had smoked. Many of these people were suffering from more than one smoking-related condition. The diseases that occurred most often were chronic bronchitis, emphysema, heart attacks, strokes, and cancer. These diseases can steal away a person's quality of life long before death. Smoking-related illness can limit a person's activities by making it harder to breathe, get around, work, or play.

There's benzene in cigarettes???!!! No wonder so many people get lung cancer... that's like inhaling death.

 

That being said, I probably won't give up my social smoking. A cigarette every 6 months can't be that terrible..

Does smoking cigars and thing such as affect your thought process or brain? It seems like while I was a smoker I didn't care to read or learn anything new. And I didn't have thoughts propagate in my head like I usually do. I will just be sitting here and something crazy comes to mind so I test it. That didn't happen while I was smoking.

Smoking certainly is horrible for your health, but then again, so is working in my profession. People who work with the chemicals I do tend to die an average of 9 years earlier than the rest of you.