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Tobacco Free Penn State

Impact of smoking and tobacco

Smoking:

  • 8.6 million people live with a serious illness caused by smoking.1
  • Cigarette smoking is responsible for more deaths each year in the United States than World War II, cocaine, heroin, alcohol, motor vehicle accidents, suicide, and homicides combined. 2
  • On average, smokers die 10 years earlier than nonsmokers.3
  • Progression from occasional to daily smoking almost always occurs by age 26.4
  • A single cigarette contains more than 4,800 chemicals, 49 of which are known to cause cancer. Secondhand smoke contains more than 7,000 chemicals, including 70 cancer-causing chemicals.5
  • Within 48 hours of quitting smoking, your nerve endings begin to regrow and your senses of smell and taste begin to return to normal.6
  • Cigarette smoking causes more than 480,000 deaths each year in the United States. This means one out of every five deaths is caused by smoking.7
  • Smoking causes about 90% of all lung cancer deaths. More women die from lung cancer each year than from breast cancer.8

College Students and Smoking:

  • Only 11% of adults with a college degree smoke.9
  • More than half of college smokers have tried to quit within the last year.9
  • Of the roughly 20 million college and university students in the U.S., more than 1 million have been projected to die prematurely from cigarette smoking. 10

Secondhand smoke:

  • Nonsmokers who are exposed to secondhand smoke at home or work increase their lung cancer risk by 20 to 30 percent.11
  • Exposure to secondhand smoke causes an estimated 41,000 deaths each year in the U.S. alone.6
  • Each year, primarily because of exposure to secondhand smoke, an estimated 7,333 annual deaths die of lung cancer.6

Smokeless tobacco:

  • 3.5 percent of all adults use smokeless tobacco.12
  • Smokeless tobacco contains 28 cancer-causing agents.13
  • Smokeless tobacco is associated with recession of the gums, gum disease, and tooth decay.14
  • Adolescents who use smokeless tobacco are more likely to become cigarette smokers.15

Footnotes:

  1. Department of Health and Human Services. “Cigarette Smoking-Attributable Morbidity: United States, 2000.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Accessed February 19, 2014, http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5235a4.htm.
  2. Will G. Burned by a Tobacco Bill. Washington Post. 2009 Jun 18;A23.
  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. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Preventing Tobacco Use Among Youth and Young Adults: A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta, GA: 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, 2012.
  5. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “How Tobacco Smoke Causes Disease: The Biology and Behavioral Basis for Smoking-Attributable Disease: A Report of the Surgeon General.” Atlanta, GA: 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, 2010. Accessed February 19, 2014.
  6. American Cancer Society. When smokers quit – what are the benefits over time?  www.cancer.org/healthy/stayawayfromtobacco/guidetoquittingsmoking/guide-to-quitting-smoking-benefits. Last revised 02/06/2014. Accessed 1/29/2016.
  7. 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 2015 Aug 17].
  8. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. How Tobacco Smoke Causes Disease: What It Means to You. 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, 2010 [accessed 2017 Apr 20]
  9. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cigarette Smoking Among Adults—United States, 2005–2015. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 2016;65(44):1205–11 [accessed 2016 Nov 14].
  10. CVS Health Foundation. CVS Health Foundation, American Cancer Society and Truth Initiative Team Up to Help Reduce Smoking on College Campuses. [accessed 2018 Jan 25].
  11. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke: 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, 2006 [accessed 2017 Jan 11].
  12. Substance Abuse and Mental health Services Administration. Results From the 2009 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: Detailed Tables. (PDF-94 KB). Rockville (MD): Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Office of Applied Studies, 2010.
  13. International Agency for Research on Cancer. Smokeless Tobacco and Some Tobacco-Specific N-Nitrosamines. Lyon, France: World Health Organization International Agency for Research on Cancer; 2007. IARC Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans Volume 89.
  14. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Periodontal Disease [last updated 2013 Jul 10; accessed 2014 Jul 18].
  15. CDC. Preventing Tobacco Use Among Young People: A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1994. Available at: http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/NN/B/C/L/Q/_/nnbclq.pdf [Accessed 2008 Jun 23].