Tobacco use is the nation’s number one cause of preventable death in the U.S. The facts are clear. Over 40,000 careful studies have proven that smoking causes disease and death. Every medical and health agency agrees. Each year, more Americans die from smoking-related diseases than from AIDS, drug abuse, car accidents and murder combined.

Take a look at the facts about cigarette smoking and your lungs.

Cigarette Smoking — The Facts
An estimated 430,000 Americans die each year from the effects of cigarette smoking.

* Smoking causes 20% (or 1 in 5) of all deaths in the United States each year.
* Cigarette smoking is the major cause of:
o emphysema
o lung cancer
o chronic bronchitis
o heart disease and stroke
* In 1988, the U.S. Surgeon General reported that nicotine is just as addictive as heroin and cocaine. A "hit" of nicotine reaches the brain in seven seconds, twice as fast as heroin injected into the vein.
* In the U.S., about 1.3 million people quit smoking each year, but about 48 million continue to smoke.
* It is estimated that 8,200 (19.8%) of the deaths in Washington state in 1997 were attributable to smoking.
* The 1998 Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) reported that 21.4% of adults in Washington State currently smoke.

Tobacco Costs — The Facts

* Cigarettes are the most heavily advertised products in the U.S.
* Tobacco companies spend over 4 billion dollars each year on advertising and promotion of their deadly products.
* Smoking costs the nation over $100 billion per year in health care costs and lost productivity — that’s about $398 per American each year.
* In Washington state $1.3 billion is spent each year on health care costs associated with caring for people with tobacco related illnesses.

Women and Smoking — The Facts

* Lung cancer has now surpassed breast cancer as the leading cause of cancer deaths among women.
* Current female smokers aged 35 and older are more than 10 times as likely to die from emphysema or chronic bronchitis than nonsmoking females.
* Americans are starting to smoke at a younger age, especially young girls.
* Pregnant smokers have higher rates of miscarriage, stillbirths and babies who are born too soon. More of their babies die soon after birth from crib death than newborns of nonsmoking mothers.
* In 1997, nearly 11,000 Washington babies were born to mothers who smoked during pregnancy.
* As more women start to smoke, their death rates from smoking-related lung diseases are fast approaching male smoking rates.

Men and Smoking — The Facts

* Cigarette smoking is the #1 cause of cancer death in men.
* Current male smokers over age 35 are almost 10 times more likely to die of lung disease and 22 times more likely to die from lung cancer than nonsmoking males.

LINK

http://www.alaw.org/tobacco_control/quit_smoking_today/quit_kit/facts_about_cigarette_smoking.html

Why are republicans advocating the right of a business to intentionally sell a poisonous substance to people in order to turn a profit? If you do not support his decision does it no longer make you pro-life?

Republicanazis are for lung cancer for all.