The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids reports that approximately 20.6 percent of the U.S. population smokes cigarettes--or 46 million men and women. It is not just the smoker who is affected: People around a smoker breathe in secondhand smoke. An additional 15.5 million kids in the U.S. are exposed to secondhand smoke. There are multiple, detrimental health and economic effects caused by cigarette smoking.
Addiction
People become addicted to nicotine, one of the 4,800 chemicals found in the cigarette, according to the American Lung Association. The habit is made even more difficult to break because people associate smoking with social activities, the association reports.
High Costs
There is a high cost to smoking, both to the individual and to the national economy. Public and private health care expenditures as a result of smoking-related illnesses cost approximately $96 billion a year, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. Almost $5 billion is spent on health care due to illnesses caused exclusively by secondhand smoke. The economy loses $97 billion because of loss of productivity due to smoking-related death. These numbers show that smoking costs a lot more than the average cost of a pack of cigarettes. In fact, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids notes that the effective cost of a pack of cigarettes is more than double the upfront cost of each pack.
Risk to Pregnancy
Smoking also causes harm to a fetus during pregnancy. The American Lung Association reports that smoking is responsible for 20 percent to 30 percent of low-birth weight babies. Smoking is a direct cause of approximately 10 percent of infant deaths. Even babies who were delivered full term and with a normal birth weight had reduced lung function, according to the American Lung Association. Despite these risks, 10.7 percent of women in 2005 smoked cigarettes while pregnant.
Death
Smoking is the number one cause of preventable death in the United States, according to the American Lung Association. Smoking causes 393,000 deaths each year. The American Lung Association reports that secondhand smoke causes an additional 50,000 deaths each year in the United States. Smokers, and those affected by secondhand smoke, commonly die from diseases affecting the lungs, heart and cardiovascular system. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that smoking causes 80 percent of lung cancer deaths in women and 90 percent of lung cancer deaths in men. Inhaling cigarette smoke also causes chronic lung diseases, including chronic bronchitis and emphysema. The American Lung Association reports that smoking is responsible for 80 percent to 90 percent of deaths because of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, which includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema. Smoking also causes other cancers such esophageal, kidney, cervical, stomach and pancreatic.
