smoking facts

Smoking Facts

Current estimates are that over 1 billion people in the world smoke. (In other words, approximately one in three adults on the planet smoke.) The majority of these smokers reside in countries on the low end to the middle of the socioeconomic spectrum. Of this majority, about 80% live in low- and middle-income countries. The total number of smokers worldwide is expected to keep increasing.

But are things in the USA any better? Not really, as you can see for yourself in the figures of National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics

In the United States, an estimated 25.6 million men (25.2 %) and 22.6 million women (20.7 %) are smokers. These people are at higher risk of heart attack and stroke. The latest estimates for persons age 18 and older will show the facts.

Facts...

Among whites, 25.1% of men and 21.7% of women smoke

Among black or African Americans, 27.6% of men and 18.0 % of women smoke

Among Hispanics/Latinos, 23.2 % of men and 12.5 % of women smoke

Among Asians (only), 21.3 % of men and 6.9 % of women smoke

Among American Indians/Alaska Natives (only), 32.0 % of men and 36.9 % of women smoke
Studies show that smoking prevalence is higher in those with 9-11 years of education (35.4 percent) compared with those with more than 16 years of education (11.6 percent). It's highest among persons living below the poverty level (33.3 percent).

And These Figures Spell Death

More Smoking Facts

One out of every five deaths is caused by tobacco

An average of 400,000 Americans die each year from tobacco

Tobacco to blame for many serious pulmonary and cardiovascular diseases

Tobacco and nicotine are some of the most potent carcinogens and are to blame for a majority of all cancers of the lung, trachea, bronchus, larynx, and esophagus

Tobacco use also produces cancers in the pancreas, kidney, bladder, and cervix

Impotency is sometimes to blame from addiction to nicotine because of its ability to reduce blood flow

Smoking is an important risk factor for respiratory illnesses, causing 85,000 deaths per year from pulmonary diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and pneumonia
Children and adolescents who are active smokers will have increasingly severe respiratory illness, as they grow older

Smoking during pregnancy causes about 5-6% of prenatal deaths, 17-26% of low-birth-weight births, and 7-10% of pre-term deliveries, and it increases the risk of miscarriage and fetal growth retardation

Cigarettes are responsible for about 25% of deaths from residential fires, causing nearly 1,000 fire-related deaths and 3,300 injuries each year

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