In its 1994 Child Health Report Card, the foundation gave a grade of C-, the same as last year. The report found that use of cigarettes among high school seniors increased in 1993 after several years of decline. Tobacco use accounts for much of the 18 percent increase in the incidence of cancer and the 7 percent rise in cancer's mortality since 1971, a National Cancer Institute advisory committee panel says. The No. 1 cause of deaths from fire is smoking. Most of these deaths occur when somebody falls asleep and drops a cigarette on a piece of furniture or a mattress.
More people die in fires caused by smoking than in arson-induced fires.
Smoking currently kills three million people worldwide every year and by 2020, the deaths will reach 10 million a year if current smoking rates continue. Traumatic deaths in the United States were far less common than tobacco deaths. Cigarette smoking increases susceptibility to colds and viruses. Smoking is significantly associated with decreased hip bone mineral density in old age. Bone loss associated with smoking increases the risk of hip fractures.