Smoking has more than 50 ways of making life a misery through illness and more than 20
ways of killing you. In general, smokers endure poorer health than non­smokers. It has been
estimated that, in England, 364,000 patients are admitted to NHS hospitals each year due to
diseases caused by smoking.

This translates into 7,000 hospital admissions per week, or  1,000 day. In 1997/98, cigarette smoking caused an estimated 480,000 patients to consult  their GP for heart disease,20,000 for stroke and nearly 600,000 for COPD.

Half of all teenagers who are currently smoking will die from diseases caused by tobacco if
they continue to smoke.  One quarter will die after 70 years of age and one quarter before,
with those dying before 70 losing on average 21 years of life. It is estimated that between
1950 and 2000 six million Britons, 60 million people worldwide, would have died from
tobacco­related diseases.

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Cigarette smoking remains the leading cause of death and illness among Americans. Every year, roughly 430,000 Americans die from illnesses caused by tobacco use, accounting for one fifth of all deaths. Tobacco use costs the nation about $100 billion each year in direct medical expense and lost productivity.

About 25% of all American adults (46.3 million people) smoke. This number has remained constant for several years despite government efforts through Healthy People 2000 and Healthy People 2010 to lower those percentages. Slightly more men (28.1%) smoke than women (23.5%). Hispanics (20.4%) smoke less than whites (25.3%) or African Americans (26.7%).

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