25 Facts about Smoking You Probably Didn’t Know

To what extent does smoking impact your health and the health of everyone else around you? What are the other dangers of smoking? Below are 20 shocking facts about smoking that you probably didn’t know.

1. Cigarettes are the most abused drugs. Worldwide, 15 billion cigarettes are smoked every day.
2. Every cigarette you smoke takes away 11 minutes of your life. That means if you smoke 10 cigarettes a day, about an hour is lost in your lifespan.
3. About 8.6 million people in the US suffer from at least one serious illness due to smoking.
4. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that male smokers lose an average of 13.2 years of life while female smokers lose an average of 14.5 years.
5. Every day, nearly 4,000 teens in the US smoke their first cigarette while 1,000 start smoking on a daily basis.



6. Each year, about 46,000 smokers die of heart disease.
7. In the US, exposure to secondhand smoke causes approximately 50,000 deaths each year.
8. It is COMPLETELY legal for minors to smoke cigarettes. In the US and some parts of the Europe, teens are only prohibited to purchase them.
9. A single cigarette contains about 4,800 chemicals that are dangerous to human health. What’s more, 69 of which are known to cause cancer.
10. Majority of smokers (69 percent) want to quit completely.
11. It was Hitler who led the very first anti-smoking campaign in the modern history.
12. Smoking near Apple Computers voids the warranty.
13. Smokers are more likely to consider quitting on Mondays.
14. Over 30 percent of cancers can be avoided if people will quit smoking, follow a healthy diet, and start exercising.
15. Cigarette smoking increases a person’s risk of developing pneumonia, chronic bronchitis and emphysema.
16. For every person who dies from a smoking-related illness, there are 20 more who suffer from at least one serious illness associated with smoking.
17. Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death.
18. Cigarettes are the single most traded item in the planet. At a global take of more than $400 billion, tobacco is one of the world’s largest industries.
19. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 25 percent of cigarettes sold around the world are smuggled.
20. The nicotine content in cigarettes is on a rise. Research by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Health Department suggests that nicotine in cigarettes may have increased by 11 percent.
21. Cigarettes are known to contain as much as 20 percent of sugar, and diabetics are unaware of this. Also, the effect of burning sugar is still unknown.
22. Smokers draw on ‘light and menthol cigarettes harder, on average, than regular cigarettes. This causes them to inhale the same amount of nicotine and tar from regular cigarettes.
23. The immune system of smokers has to work harder everyday than that of non-smokers. As a result, their blood contains fewer antioxidants.
24. Urea, a chemical compound that is a major component in urine, is used to add “flavor” to cigarettes.

Hope these facts about smoking have intensified your desire to quit. Share this to your friends and family and be an instrument of change.