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An invitation to Quit Smoking
From the
US Center for Disease Control (CDC)
An estimated
46.2 million adults in the
United States smoke cigarettes even though this
single behavior will result in death or
disability for half of all regular smokers.
Cigarette
smoking is responsible for more than 440,000 deaths each year. More than
8.6 million people in the United States
have at least one serious illness caused by
smoking. If current patterns of smoking
persist, 6.4 million people currently
younger than 18 will die prematurely from a
tobacco-related disease.
Tobacco
use is the single most avoidable cause of
disease, disability, and death in the United
States. Over the past 4 decades,
cigarette smoking has caused an estimated 12
million deaths, including 4.1 million
deaths from cancer, 5.5 million deaths from
cardiovascular diseases, 2.1 million deaths from
respiratory diseases, and 94,000 infant deaths
related to their mother’s smoking.
Smokeless
tobacco, cigars, and pipes also have deadly
consequences, including lung, larynx,
esophageal, and oral cancer. Low-tar
cigarettes and novel tobacco products such as
bidis and clove cigarettes are not safe
alternatives.
The harmful
effects of smoking do not end with the smoker.
... each year, primarily because of exposure to
secondhand smoke, an estimated 3,000
nonsmoking Americans die of lung cancer, and
more than 35,000 die of heart disease.
An estimated 150,000–300,000 children younger
than 18 months of age have respiratory tract
infections because of exposure to secondhand
smoke.
The World Health Organization (WHO)
estimates of the number of deaths caused by
smoking every year is 4.9 million.
Quit Smoking Fresh Start
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