Some Quick Smoking Facts

• Cigarette smoking has been identified as the most important source of preventable morbidity and premature mortality in the United States and the world.
• Smoking-related diseases cause an estimated 440,000 American deaths each year.
• Smoking costs the United States over $150 billion annually in health care costs.
• A 2004 Study by the CDC's National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion found that cigarette smoke contains over 4,800 chemicals, 69 of which are known to cause cancer.
• Women account for 39 percent of all smoking deaths.
• 3,000 nonsmoking adults die of diseases caused by exposure to second hand smoke every year

• Secondhand smoke contains more than 4,000 chemical compounds, including carbon monoxide ( which poisons the human body), ammonia, formaldehyde, and other poisons. 4 of the chemicals - benzene, 2-naphthylamine, 4-aminobiphenyl, and polonium-210 are classified by the EPA as known carcinogens-cancer causing agents.