About 46 million American adults are smokers. A 2007 study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed that 20 percent of high school students reported smoking within 30 days prior to the study. The CDC also found that 80 percent of smokers began smoking before age 18. For decades, tobacco use has remained the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, resulting in an average of 1,178 deaths per day.
Chemicals in Tobacco
According to the National Cancer Institute, tobacco smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals. These chemicals contribute to addiction and diseases associated with smoking. More than 250 of these are known toxins, including hydrogen cyanide, carbon monoxide, ammonia, toluene and formaldehyde. Carcinogenic, or cancer-causing, chemicals found in cigarette smoke include arsenic, benzene, cadmium and more than 50 others.
Health Effects
Smoking has both short- and long-term health effects. Immediate effects include shortness of breath and decreased energy. The American Heart Association reports that over the long term, smoking damages blood vessels, causing poor circulation and contributing to coronary diseases including irregular heart rhythm, blood clots and fatty buildup in arteries. Cigarettes contribute to lung diseases including bronchitis and emphysema. Smoking also increases the risk for several types of cancer, including lung cancer, pancreatic cancer and leukemia.
Financial Costs
Cigarettes cost a national average of about $6 per pack in 2010. Even at $4 per pack, a pack-a-day smoker spends over $1,400 per year on cigarettes alone. The medical cost due to smoking-related disease is more than $50 billion annually, and the workplace sector loses an additional $50 billion per year in lost wages and lost productivity due to smoking.
Smoking and Pregnancy
According to the March of Dimes, more than 10 percent of women smoke while pregnant. Smoking slows fetal growth, often resulting in premature and low birth-weight babies. These underdeveloped babies are at an increased risk for disorders including mental retardation and cerebral palsy. Smoking while pregnant also increases the risk of miscarriage and stillbirth and triples the future risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, or SIDS. Secondhand smoke is also highly detrimental to the development of unborn babies.
Media Portrayal
A 2009 study published in Pediatrics journal concluded that movie portrayals of characters smoking increased the likelihood that adolescent viewers would try smoking. The study surveyed over 6,500 adolescents over a period of two years, focusing on whether they watched films that portrayed main characters as smokers. By the end of the study, nearly 16 percent of former non-smoking adolescents who watched films with smoking characters had taken up the habit.
