This is because smoking involves both physical and psychological components. Nicotine is a physically addictive substance. After an initial rejection by the body, a tolerance level develops in the smoker and withdrawal symptoms occur when nicotine is withheld. Cigarettes also produce a psychological dependence. The desire to smoke is triggered by certain situations, emotions and a need to inhale and exhale something.
Cigarette smoking is our nation's number one preventable cause of illness and premature death.
Over 440,000 people in the U.S. die from the effects of smoking each year. Nonsmokers who inhale secondhand smoke from a burning cigarette have an increased risk of lung cancer and heart disease as well. Pregnant women who smoke are cutting off oxygen to their developing fetus as well as altering the blood pressure and heart rate of the baby. Medical research has found that each cigarette smoked takes 15 minutes off a person's life, on average. Children of smokers have twice the incidence of respiratory ailments as the children of nonsmokers.