177,000 Americans will die of smoking-related lung cancer this year alone. 30 percent of all heart disease deaths are directly linked to smoking. Others suffer emphysema, chronic bronchitis, pneumonia, and a range of other problems. Smoking even affects the sexes differently. It can be a factor in impotence among middle-aged men, and women smokers who take the Pill face almost twice the heart disease risk.
Additives add more problems.
A recent study of esophageal cancer tied higher levels of the disease among African-Americans to their higher consumption of menthol cigarettes. Studies show that smokers just smoke more to make up for lost nicotine. In fact, the American Heart Association, American Lung Association, and American Cancer Society estimate that passive smoking figures into as many as 43,000 U.S. deaths each year and raises the risk of cancer and other diseases among the children, co-workers, friends, and spouses of smokers. And it's such a big fact that not even Big Tobacco and its high-priced lawyers argue about it much any more. But just knowing that and knowing about smoking's health risks isn't enough.