Smoking in the US: Facts, Health Risks & Statistics

Cigarette smoke and secondhand cigarette smoke is the leading cause of cancer, heart disease and other health-related ailments in the United States according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Almost half a million Americans die each year from illnesses linked to smoking.

Youth Smokers

• As of 2007, the CDC calculated that 2 percent of high school students smoke. An estimated 3,900 people between the ages of 12 and 17 try their first cigarette each day. Of those people, 25 percent become habitual smokers.

Smoking Illnesses

• Direct and indirect (secondhand smoke) inhalation of cigarette smoke can lead to lung cancer, throat cancer, emphysema, stroke and heart disease. The CDC has recorded that almost as many people die each year from illnesses caused by secondhand smoke as those that are smokers.

Secondhand Smoke

• According to the American Cancer Society, about 46,000 deaths each year in the United States are attributed to heart disease and roughly 3,400 deaths are attributed to lung cancer caused by secondhand smoke.