Tobacco Quick Facts

Quick Facts about Tobacco:

Disease and Death

  • Every 6 seconds, someone dies from tobacco use.
  • Every cigarette smoked cuts at least five minutes of life on average – about the time taken to smoke it.12
  • 20% of deaths in America are the result of smoking
  • 90% of adult smokers begin smoking before the age of 18
  • 75% of secondhand smoke deaths occur among women and children
  • Tobacco companies makes $6,000 in profit for every tobacco death
  • More than 16 million Americans are living with a disease caused by smoking
  • Smoking leads to disease and disability and harms nearly every organ of the body.
  • Smoking increases the risk of tuberculosis, certain eye diseases, and problems of the immune system including rheumatoid arthritis.
  • Smoking is a known cause of erectile dysfunction in males.
  • Worldwide, tobacco use causes nearly 6 million deaths per year, and current trends show that tobacco use will cause more than 8 million deaths annually by 2030.2
  • Cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 deaths per year in the United States, including more than 41,000 deaths resulting from secondhand smoke exposure. This is about one in five deaths annually, or 1,300 deaths every day.1
  • On average, smokers die 10 years earlier than nonsmokers.3
  • There are more than 4,000 chemicals in tobacco smoke, of which at least are known to be harmful and more than 50 are known to cause cancer.

Youth and Smoking

  • Evidence shows that around 50% of those who start smoking in adolescent years go on to smoke for 15 to 20 years.12
  • If smoking continues at the current rate among U.S. youth, 5.6 million of today’s Americans younger than 18 years of age are expected to die prematurely from a smoking-related illness. This represents about one in every 13 Americans aged 17 years or younger who are alive today.1
  • Each day, more than 3,200 people younger than 18 years of age smoke their first cigarette.
  • Each day, an estimated 2,100 youth and young adults who have been occasional smokers become daily cigarette smokers.
  • Quitting smoking before the age of 40 reduces the risk of dying from smoking-related disease by about 90%.10

Cost and expenditures

  • 10.4 billion spent by U.S. tobacco industry on advertising and promotion in 2008
  • $170 billion spent every year for direct medical costs
  • More than $156 billion are lost productivity due to smoking-related premature deaths and exposure to secondhand smoke in America
  • About 15 billion cigarettes are sold daily – or 10 million every minute.12
References:

https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/fast_facts/index.htm

  1. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of Smoking—50 Years of Progress: A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, 2014 [accessed 2017 Mar 28].
  2. World Health Organization. WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic, 2011. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2011 [accessed 2017 Mar 28].
  3. Jha P, Ramasundarahettige C, Landsman V, et al. 21st Century Hazards of Smoking and Benefits of Cessation in the United States. New England Journal of Medicine 2013;368:341–50 [accessed 2017 Mar 28].
  4. Federal Trade Commission. Federal Trade Commission Cigarette Report for 2014[PDF–508.2 KB]. Washington: Federal Trade Commission, 2015 [accessed 2017 Mar 28].
  5. Xu X, Bishop EE, Kennedy SM, Simpson SA, Pechacek TF. Annual Healthcare Spending Attributable to Cigarette Smoking: An Update[PDF–157 KB]. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 2014;48(3):326–33 [accessed 2017 Mar 28].
  6. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs–2014.Atlanta: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, 2014 [accessed 2017 Mar 28].
  7. Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. Broken Promises to Our Children: The 1998 State Tobacco Settlement 17 Years Later[PDF–4.14 MB]. Washington: Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, 2016 [accessed 2017 Mar 28].
  8. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Current Cigarette Smoking Among Adults—United States, 2005–2015.Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 2016;65(44):1205–1211 [accessed 2017 Mar 28].
  9. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Tips Impact and Results [last updated 2017 Mar 28; accessed 2017 Mar 28].
  10. Jha P, Ramasundarahettige C, Landsman V, Rostrom B, Thun M, Anderson RN, McAfee T, Peto R. 21st Century Hazards of Smoking and Benefits of Cessation in the United States [PDF–738 KB]. New England Journal of Medicine, 2013;368(4):341–50 [accessed 2015 Aug 17].
  11. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs339/en/
  12. http://www.wpro.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs_20020528/en/