An estimated 47 million adults in the United States smoke cigarettes, even though this behavior will result in death or disability for half of all regular users.
Cigarette smoking is the single most preventable cause of premature death in the United States.
Each year, more than 430,000 Americans die from cigarette smoking. In fact, one in every five deaths in the United States is smoking related. Smoking triples the risk of dying from heart disease among middle-aged men and women. On average, smokers die nearly seven years earlier than nonsmokers. Annually, exposure to secondhand smoke causes an estimated 3,000 deaths from lung cancer among American adults.