Most of us have a vague idea that smoking is a habit that can have many serious implications on our health, but there is a tendency to view the problem lightly. It’s important that every smoker (or even potential smoker) be aware of the facts concerning smoking:

• One out of every five deaths in the world is caused by tobacco
• Smoking is to blame for many serious pulmonary and cardiovascular diseases
• Tobacco and nicotine are some of the most potent carcinogens and are to blame for a majority of all cancers of the lung, trachea, bronchus, larynx, and esophagus
•  Smoking causes cancer in the pancreas, kidney, bladder, and cervix
• Impotency is sometimes to blame from addiction to nicotine because of its ability to reduce blood flow
• Smoking is an important risk factor for respiratory illnesses, causing 85,000 deaths per year from pulmonary diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and pneumonia
• Children and adolescents who are active smokers will have increasingly severe respiratory illness, as they grow older
• Smoking during pregnancy causes about 5-6% of prenatal deaths, 17-26% of low-birth-weight births, and 7-10% of pre-term deliveries, and it increases the risk of miscarriage and fetal growth retardation
• Cigarettes are responsible for about 25% of deaths from residential fires, causing nearly 1,000 fire-related deaths and 3,300 injuries each year.