Effects of smoking

Many Americans are living with a disease caused by smoking.

• Smoking leads to disease and disability and harms nearly every organ of the body.
• According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), cigarette smoking results in more than 400,000 premature deaths in the United States each year (about one in every five U.S. deaths). Another 49,000 deaths are caused by secondhand smoke each year.

Smoking causes an increased risk of:

• Cancer
• Asthma
• Heart disease
• Infertility
• Stroke
• Lung disease
• Diabetes
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
• Stillbirth
• Emphysema
• Low birth weight
• Pneumonia
• Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)
• Bronchitis
• Tuberculosis
• Certain eye diseases
• Problems of the immune system

Other risks:

• Aside from the serious health effects, smoking can cause yellow teeth and nails, bad breath and premature wrinkles.
• Roughly one-third of all youth smokers will eventually die prematurely from smoking-caused disease.