Everyone knows that smoking is bad for you. Simply search online and you can find thousands upon thousands of reports that are telling you to quit and steps on how to do it. If you think about it, though, how big of a problem has smoking become for the world? What are some scientific facts that pertain to smoking that can help paint you a picture that will guide you into believing how severe this problem has become.
There are about 1.1 billion smokers in the world. It is projected that if this trend were to continue, there will be about 1.6 billion smokers by the year 2025. About ten million cigarettes are bought every minute, fifteen billion bought every day, and more than five trillion cigarettes per year. China is home to over 300 million smokers. Combined, they consume 1.7 trillion cigarettes every year, which corresponds to about three million cigarettes every minute.
There is enough nicotine in around four or five cigarettes that could potentially kill an adult if they ingested the cigarette whole. Excess nicotine is burned off, so the average cigarette only gives off one or two milligrams of nicotine per cigarette. Secondhand smoke contains over fifty cancer-causing chemicals. Eleven of them are known as Group 1 carcinogens. Smokers inhale about 15% of the smoke in a cigarette. There are over 4,000 chemicals found in one cigarette. A smoker can build up one cup of tar in their lungs by smoking one pack of cigarettes a day. Smoking causes your heart rate to increase by 10 to 25 beats per minute. This leads to 36,000 extra beats your heart must pump out every day.
Over 3,000 kids begin smoking every day in the United States, while almost 6,000 children under the age of 18 begin worldwide. 20% of children ages 13 to 15 are smokers. An estimated 25% of the youth in East Asia and the Pacific will die due to tobacco use. It is estimated that there are around five million United States adolescents that smoke cigarettes. 90% of smokers will begin before the age of 21. In a 2001 poll, 28% of high school students are smokers. One out of every five high school seniors smoke cigarettes daily. 12% of tenth graders and 5% of eighth graders smoke daily. 70% of teenagers that are smokers said they wish they had never started.
Half of long-term smokers will die due to tobacco-related illnesses. Every eight seconds, someone will die due to tobacco use. About five million people will die due to smoking every year, with 500,000 of them being in the United States. It is projected that one billion lives will be taken this century barring severe efforts made globally to reduce worldwide smoking. One out of every five people in the United States smoke cigarettes. More Americans are killed by cigarettes than alcohol, car accidents, suicide, AIDS, murder, and illegal drug use combined. Every cigarette is said to take away five to seven minutes of your life.
Inhaling secondhand smoke can impair blood flow to the heart. 3,000 lung cancer patients are diagnosed due to secondhand smoke being responsible. In some restaurants, the smoke found is 2 to five times greater than a home with a smoker. Secondhand smoke effects between 150,000 to 300,000 respiratory infections in children every year. 7,500 to 15,000 infants are hospitalized every year due to secondhand smoke, with around 2,000 infants dying of SIDS due to secondhand smoke annually. Rooms that are filled up with smoke can have as six times as much pollution as a crowded highway. It takes three hours for smoke to clear a room.
In the four states where strong tobacco programs are funded, cigarette sales are 43% lower than the rest of the United States. Smokers have tried quitting an average of seven times before they are successful. Withdrawal symptoms peak after three days when quitting. If you smoke one pack a day for one year, you spend almost $2,000 on cigarettes. Tobacco companies need 2.2 million new smokers every year in order to stay in business. Tobacco companies spend $6 billion a year on advertising. That corresponds to $6 million a day and $11,000 spent every minute.
26% of Caucasian males smoke, while 22% of Caucasian females smoke. 29% of black males smoke, while only 21% of black females smoke. Only 12% of female Hispanics smoke compared to 24% of Hispanic men. Native Americans smoke the most, with 41% of both males and females smoke. Those that have been educated for over sixteen years shows only 12% smoke, which those educated for nine to eleven years contain 35% of smokers. 33% of people living in poverty smoke.
So now you know. With the information listed above, you now know just what impact smoking has not only on you and your family, but on the world.
