Smoking Facts and Statistics

Nobody needs a reminder of the fact that smoking is bad for health. You have probably been told this countless number of times by countless number of people. However, sometimes it takes more than just repeated warnings about impending heart attacks to get people really thinking about how bad this extremely futile, money-burning and avoidable habit can be. So here are a few facts about it that will help you understand the huge scale of this habit, which according to the United States Center for Disease Control is "the single most important preventable risk to human health in developed countries and an important cause of premature death worldwide."

Smoking Statistics

Every year as many as 440,000 individuals succumb to smoking related diseases in the United States alone. That, however, is just one of the numerous facts which highlight the seriousness of this issue. The information given below includes quite a few facts and myths about this habit which you must have never come across before.

• According to recent data around 1.1 billion people in the world are smokers, and if this trend continues at the current rate, this number is expected to increase to about 1.6 billion by 2025. That would mean that approximately one in every seven people would be a cigarette smoker in another 15 years from now.
• At least 80 percent of the people that are diagnosed with lung cancer are (or have been) active smokers.
• More people die in the United States due to cigarette smoking as compared to those that die due to car crashes, alcohol abuse, murder, drug abuse and AIDS combined.
• It is said that approximately one in five people that are in their early teens, that is between the age of thirteen and fifteen years, smoke cigarettes.
• A life is lost due to tobacco use in some part of the world every eight seconds. This comes at around five million deaths due to the direct or indirect effects of smoking.

Secondhand Smoking Statistics

Secondhand smoke, also referred to as passive smoke or environmental tobacco smoke, is yet another serious health concern in the world, and a look at some facts about it will tell you exactly why. Given below are some passive smoking facts which will give you a rough idea of the seriousness of this issue.

• Secondhand smoke is the third leading preventable risk to human health in the United States. Only active smoking and alcohol are considered more serious than this.
• Passive smoking, which is one of the leading causes of various cardiovascular and respiratory diseases in humans, result in 600,000 premature deaths in the world every year.
• When a person smokes a cigarette, 85 percent of the smoke released from it remains in the atmosphere and enters our respiratory system when we breathe.
• In the United States, approximately 70 to 90 percent of the population are exposed to secondhand smoke on a regular basis.
• Women who don't smoke but live with a smoker have 91 percent risk of suffering from heart disease, and double the risk of dying from lung cancer.

For many people out there, these facts and statistics must be really disheartening to read, but this is the scenario that is prevailing in the society today. Interestingly, one in seven people in the world have the money to splurge on cigarettes when almost one in six people in the world are malnourished or do not have enough food to eat for a day. Let's hope that these numbers act as an eye opener for those who have been turning a blind eye to the adverse consequences of lighting this 'cancer stick'.