Cigarettes cause one out of every five deaths in the U.S. today.
While this figure will gradually decline to one in ten deaths in coming decades, this is still completely unacceptable. More than 30 percent of coronary heart disease cases are attributable to cigarette smoking. More than 30 percent of all annual cancer deaths are attributable to smoking. Smoking is responsible for one-quarter of all deaths caused by fire. Involuntary smoking is a cause of death and disease, including lung cancer, in healthy nonsmokers.