While the tobacco industry claims not to market its products to children, the industry collects more than 1.25 billion annually from sales to minors. Of those who had ever tried to purchase cigarettes, almost half were never asked to show proof of age. Five percent of all deaths in the United States are the result of tobacco use. Smoking-related diseases kill approximately 419,000 Americans each year. That's more than from alcohol, crack, heroin, homicide, suicide, car accidents and AIDS combined.
Smoking is the single most preventable cause of death in the United States.
Smokers are ten times more likely to develop lung cancer than nonsmokers. In Michigan, approximately 6,700 residents were diagnosed with lung cancer in 1997, and approximately 5,900 residents died of lung cancer. Since 1987, lung cancer incidence has declined in men, but continues to increase in women, due primarily to increased smoking by women. Smoking is a major cause of heart disease and is associated with conditions ranging from colds and gastric ulcers to chronic bronchitis, emphysema and cerebrovascular disease. A smokers risk of heart attack is more than twice that of nonsmokers.