Beyond Common Knowledge

Many people who smoke are very aware of the consequences - lung cancer, mouth and throat cancers, bladder and liver cancer, increased risk of infertility and poor circulation, and other dangerous issues - but are willing to take the risk, even knowing that smoking kills more people every year than any other preventable cause.

If someone wants to make this choice, that may be their right, even though it is sad and tragic. However, what is truly sad is the knowledge that their smoking kills more than just themselves, it actually does quite a bit of harm and damage to the people around them.

It’s thought that a non-smoker living with a smoker inhales about 15% of the same tobacco as the smoker; this means that for every 10 cigarettes smoked, the non-smoker inhales the equivalent of 1-1/2 cigarettes!

These passive smokers are especially prone to the dangerous effects of smoking if they already have asthma, heart disease, or in some other way are very sensitive.

Lung cancer is still one of the leading ways that smoking kills. Between 1960 and 1990, deaths from lung cancer among women have increased by more than 400%-exceeding breast cancer deaths in the mid-1980s. The American Cancer Society estimated that in 1994, 64,300 women died from lung cancer and 44,300 died from breast cancer.

While most connect lung cancer to the habit, smoking kills both the smoker and the non-smoker in more ways than just this. Non-smokers who live with smokers are more likely to have asthma and scarred lungs than those who live in a smoke-free environment. Chronic bronchitis, pneumonia, and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases (COPD) are other ways that smoking kills both the smoker and the non-smoker alike.

Annually, exposure to secondhand smoke (or environmental tobacco smoke) causes an estimated 3,000 deaths from lung cancer among American adults. Scientific studies also link secondhand smoke with heart disease, one of the more common ways that smoking kills the smoker and non-smoker alike.

Each year, more than 400,000 Americans die from cigarette smoking. One in every five deaths in the United States is smoking related. Every year, smoking kills more than 276,000 men and 142,000 women. Every year in the United States, premature deaths from smoking rob more than five million years from the potential lifespan of those who have died. This is yet another way that non-smokers, even those not affected health-wise by smoke, are hurt by the disease. If nothing else, this means that these ones they love and care about are being robbed of five million years; so yes, smoking kills more than just the smoker. It’s a habit that affects everyone, smoker or not.