ECONOMIC COSTS Smoking

The economic costs of smoking in the United States are estimated at $167 billion annually. Productivity losses from premature death account for $92 billion, and $75.5 billion is spent on health care.

Health Effects of Cigarette Smoking

The health effects from cigarette smoking account for an estimated 438,000 deaths, or nearly one of every five deaths, yearly in the U.S. More deaths are caused each year by tobacco use than by all deaths from HIV, illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, suicides and murders.

Cancer

Cancer is the second leading cause of death.

Smoking causes about 90 percent of lung cancer deaths in men and almost 80 percent of lung cancer deaths in women. The risk of dying from lung cancer is more than 23 times higher among men who smoke cigarettes and about 13 times higher among women who smoke cigarettes compared with nonsmokers.

Smoking causes cancers of the bladder, oral cavity, pharynx, voice box, esophagus, cervix, kidney, lung, pancreas and stomach, and causes acute myeloid leukemia.

Cardiovascular Disease

Smoking causes coronary heart disease, the leading cause of death in the U.S. Cigarette smokers are two to four times more likely to develop coronary heart disease than nonsmokers.

Cigarette smoking approximately doubles a person’s risk for stroke.

Cigarette smoking causes reduced circulation by narrowing arteries. Smokers are more than 10 times as likely as nonsmokers to develop peripheral vascular disease.

Respiratory Disease and Other Effects

About 90 percent of all deaths from chronic obstructive lung diseases are attributable to cigarette smoking.

Cigarette smoking has many adverse reproductive and early childhood effects, including an increased risk for infertility, preterm delivery, stillbirth, low birth weight and sudden infant death syndrome.

Postmenopausal women who smoke have lower bone density than women who never smoked. Women who smoke have an increased risk for hip fracture than nonsmokers.

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention