Tough on Drugs

Facts About Smoking And Addiction

* Smoking-related illnesses cause about 440,000 deaths each year in the U.S.

* Smoking is responsible for 87 percent of lung cancers and also causes most cases of emphysema An enlargement and destruction of the tiny air sacs in the lungs known as alveoli. and chronic bronchitis An inflammation of airways in the lungs known as bronchi, usually caused by an infection or by smoking..

* Tobacco use, especially smoking, is the number one cause of preventable disease and death in the U.S.

* Cigarettes contain at least 43 distinct cancer-causing chemicals.

* Nicotine is as highly addictive as heroin and cocaine.

* Approximately 80 percent of adult smokers started smoking before age 18.

* Most people try to quit smoking several times before they're successful. Only 2.5 percent of smokers successfully quit each year.

* The benefits of quitting smoking begin to occur within 20 minutes of the last cigarette smoked.

* A person who stops smoking will have the same risk of heart disease and death 15 years after quitting as someone who has never smoked.

* Secondhand smoke is known to cause cancer and is responsible for approximately 3,000 lung cancer deaths in nonsmokers each year.

*Many millions of Americans, both children and adults, are still exposed to secondhand smoke in their homes and workplaces.
*About 1 out of every 10 children under the age of 6 in the United States breathes secondhand smoke at home at least 4 days per week.
*First of all, up to 5% of infant deaths would be prevented if pregnant women did not smoke.

Also cigarette smoke contains the chemicals that are used in rat poison, embalming fluid, rocket fuel and toilet cleaner. In fact, the radioactive ingredient polonium-210 that was used to poison the Russian spy a few years ago is also present in cigarettes. It's amazing that cigarettes are legal with all those chemicals in them.