The Real Costs of Smoking
Cigarettes contain at least 43 distinct cancer-causing chemicals. Smoking is directly responsible for 87 percent of lung cancer cases, and the habit causes most cases of emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Smoking is also a major factor in coronary heart disease and stroke. It may cause malignancies (cancers) in other parts of the body, and it has been linked to a variety of other conditions and disorders, including slowed healing of wounds, infertility and peptic ulcer disease. Recently smoking has been found to be associated to reduced sexual activity and reduced sexual enjoyment in men.
- Nicotine is an extremely addictive drug (said to be as addictive as cocaine in some individuals), which when inhaled in cigarette smoke reaches the brain faster than drugs that enter the body intravenously. Smokers become physically addicted to nicotine in a very short period of time; they also link smoking with many social activities, making smoking a difficult habit to break physically and psychologically.
- Smoking-related diseases claim an estimated 430,700 American lives each year, including those affected indirectly, such as the victims of secondhand smoke and babies born prematurely because the mother smoked while she was pregnant. First-hand smoking alone costs the United States approximately $97.2 billion each year in health care costs and lost productivity.
- Secondhand smoke inhaled involuntarily by nonsmokers is classified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a known human (Group A) carcinogen, responsible for approximately 3,000 lung cancer deaths annually in nonsmokers in the United States.
- Employers have a legal right to restrict smoking in the workplace or to implement a totally smoke-free workplace policy. Exceptions may arise in the case of collective bargaining agreements with unions.
