FACTS

- Smoking is an addiction. Tobacco smoke contains nicotine, a drug that is addictive and can make it very hard, but not impossible, to quit.

- Nicotine addiction is similar to heroin or cocaine addiction.

- Levels of dependency vary, but 89% of smokers have a cigarette every one to two hours throughout the day.

- A highly addicted smoker smokes more than 25 cigarettes a day, ranks the first cigarette in the day as the most important, and will smoke within 30 minutes of waking up.

- Smoking harms not just the smoker, but also family members, coworkers, and others who breathe the smoker's cigarette smoke, called secondhand smoke.

- This year, there will be more than 400,000 deaths in the U.S. from smoking-related illnesses, at least 10,000 of them will be non-smokers. Smoking greatly increases your risk for lung cancer and many other cancers.

- A smokers life expectancy is 72-years, compared to the national average of almost 80-years?

- Approximately 4000-5000 different substances have been identified in cigarette smoke. Around half of these substances are found in the tobacco leaves; the rest are produced as it burns.

- Although the amount of chemicals in each cigarette is small, it is cumulative -- the amount stored in the body increases with each puff of a cigarette. There is a little bit of chemical in each cigarette puff, and there are over 10 puffs per cigarette. Over a year, at one pack of cigarettes a day, a smoker will inhale 73,000 puffs of dangerous chemicals.

- When a smoker inhales, the temperature around the lighted end rises to approximately 1000 degrees Celsius, falling to approximately 40 degrees Celsius by the time the smoke enters the mouth.

- During pregnancy, smokers have a greater risk of miscarriages. During the birth, they are more likely to have complications. The chances of a baby's dying at birth or shortly thereafter are increased if the mother has smoked during pregnancy

- More than 18% of all deaths from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) are due to maternal tobacco use.

- Among infants to 18 months of age, secondhand smoke is associated with as many as 300,000 cases of bronchitis and pneumonia each year.

- Secondhand smoke from a parent's cigarette increases a child's chances for middle ear problems, causes coughing and wheezing, and worsens asthma conditions.

- Pregnant women who smoke are more likely to deliver babies whose weights are too low for the babies' good health. If all women quit smoking during pregnancy, about 4,000 new babies would not die each year.

- If both parents smoke, a teenager is more than twice as likely to smoke than a young person whose parents are both nonsmokers. In households where only one parent smokes, young people are also more likely to start smoking.

- Smoking saves money, if you have never smoked, you could potentially have saved $137,970 in your lifetime.