Tobacco smoking is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality,
and causes heart disease, stroke, emphysema, chronic bronchitis,
lung cancer and many other cancers. There are an estimated 5
million deaths per year throughout the world due to tobacco
smoking. In the United States, one of every five deaths annually
is caused by tobacco use. Tobacco use causes an estimated
443,000 deaths per year in the United States, and about 49,000
of these are the result of secondhand smoke exposure.
Individuals who smoke tobacco will die on average about 13 to 14
years earlier than nonsmokers. We have previously discussed the
comments made by the CEO of Phillip Morris International, Mr.
Louis Camilleri, when he stated “Whilst [smoking] is addictive,
it is not that hard to quit… There are more previous smokers in
America today than current smokers.” We have also discussed the
recent outdoors tobacco smoking ban that was instituted in New
York City. Despite this, more needs to be done to rid the world
of the scourge of tobacco