Today, around 1.22 billion people smoke. About 20% of which are young teens. Are you one of them?Do you know some important facts about smoking? Let me share some of them.

• Long term exposure to compounds found in smoke like carbon monoxide and cyanide is responsible for causing emphysema and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
• In the United States, it is estimated that 87% of lung cancer cases are related to smoking.
• Exposure to secondhand smoke increases heart disease risk by 25 to 30% and lung cancer risk by 20 to 30%. Secondhand smoke kills about 50,000 Americans every year. Your smoking is harmful to others as well!
• Smoking also causes cancers of the oral cavity, esophagus, and larynx.
• Smoking more than 20 cigarettes a day increases the risk of tuberculosis by 2 to 4 times.
• Smokers have a fourfold increased risk of having invasive pneumococcal disease.
• Smoking increases the risk of infections like common cold, bronchitis, chronic bronchitis and other pulmonary and respiratory infections.
• Smoking is a significant factor in miscarriages among pregnant smokers.
• Secondhand smoke is connected to sudden infant death syndrome. It results in 430 infant deaths in the United States every year.
• You are 5 times more likely to have a heart attack if you smoke.
• Today, smoking is the second major cause of death in the world! It accounts for 58.8 million deaths worldwide! 443,000 Americans die because of smoking!
• A smoker or former smoker dies every 6.5 seconds!
• You lose 11 minutes of your life for every cigarette that you consume.
• Compared to a nonsmoker, a smoker’s life expectancy is reduced by 2.5 to 10 years fewer.

All these facts are supported by years of research regarding the effects of smoking. If smoking causes diseases and deaths, why don’t you quit? You were a nonsmoker before. You can be one again! Quit now!

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