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Questions to Ask Your Doctor About Your Cancer
(Free Handout)

Smoking Facts and Statistics

Prevalence

• About 80% of smokers start before the age of 18.
• Every day nearly 4,000 12-17 year olds in the United States start smoking.
• About 22% of high school students in the United States smoke cigarettes.
• About 8% of middle school student in the United States smoke cigarettes.
• About 1 out of 5 people in the United States smoke cigarettes.

Effects

• The most common causes of death among smokers are cardiovascular (heart) diseases, tobacco-related cancers, and respiratory diseases.
• About 430,000 deaths per year are linked to cigarette smoking.
• More Americans are killed each year by cigarettes than by alcohol, car crashes, suicide, AIDS, homicide, and illegal drugs combined.

Secondhand smoke effects

• Thirty minutes of secondhand smoke can impair the normal flow of blood to the heart in non-smokers.
• Secondhand smoke is responsible for about 3,000 lung cancer and tens of thousands of heart disease deaths per year in non-smokers.

• Levels of secondhand smoke in restaurants have been found to be 2-5 times greater than those in a home with smokers.
• Secondhand smoke causes between 150,000 and 300,000 lower respiratory infections in children younger than 18 months and results in 7,000-15,000 hospitalizations each year.
• About 1,900-2,700 infants die of SIDS each year due to secondhand smoke.

Quitting facts

• Cigarette sales dropped by an average of 43% in 4 states where strong tobacco control programs were funded and maintained.
• Most successful ex-smokers have tried to quit an average of 7 times before they were successful.
• Withdrawal symptoms peak at 3 days and then begin to subside.
• Smokers who also suffer from depression have a harder time quitting than smokers who are not depressed.

Sources: All statistics from either the American Cancer Society, American Lung Association, or the American Heart Association.

Smoking, Facts reprinted with permission from cardiologychannel.com
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