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Public Health Aspects
Of Tobacco Use

1 Katherine Napier, Cigarettes: What the Warning Label Doesn't Tell You, American Council on Science and Health, New York, N.Y., 1996, pp. 6-8. 2 Ibid, p. 14. 3Ibid, p. 8. 4Ibid. 5The Merck Manual, 16th ed., Merck & Co., Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, 1992, p. 731. 6 Katherine Napier, Cigarettes: What the Warning Label Doesn't Tell You, American Council on Science and Health, New York, N.Y., 1996, p. 14. 7Ibid, p. 26. 8Ibid, xi. 9Ibid, p.27. 10Ibid, p. 9. 11"Health Consequences of Using Smokeless Tobacco,"A Report of the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General, National Institutes of Health, Publication No. 86- 2874, April 1996. 12Institute of Medicine, Growing Up Tobacco Free, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 1994, p. 3. 13 Project ASSIST: Smokefree Indiana, "The Sublink", June 22, 1998

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 Just The Facts

Health Effects On Adults
Smoking is the major single cause of cancer mortality in the United States.1
An estimated 30% of cancer deaths in the U.S. are linked to smoking.2
The risk of death due to lung cancer is 22 times greater in smokers.3 It is estimated that 85% of all deaths from all lung cancers are a consequence of smoking.4 Nearly 100% of bronchogenic arcinoma of the lung is tobacco related. 5
Other cancers linked to smoking are of the larynx and oral cavity, esophagus, bladder and kidney, pancreas, stomach and uterine cervix.6
Smoking is responsible for about 100,000 deaths from coronary heart disease.7 The risk of death due to heart disease is almost double in smokers.8
High blood pressure, stroke and circulatory deficiencies are also linked to smoking.9
Debilitating and fatal chronic obstructive lung diseases such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis are 10 times more likely to occur in smokers than in non-smokers.10
Use of smokeless tobacco causes serious oral health problems, such as oral cancers, leukoplakia, enamel erosion, tooth loss, gingivitis and gum ulcers.11
In 1990 as a result of smoking, on average, each smoker reduced their life expectancy by at least 15 additional years as compared to a nonsmoker. For the population at large, this translates into 6 million years of potential life lost each year. 12
A study in California tracked 225 men between the ages of 30 and 89 who smoked an average of two cigars a day for ten years or more and compared them with 14,227 nonsmoking men. They were twice as likely to die of cancer or heart disease.13