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.

(more…)