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HEALTH EFFECTS:
Smoking tobacco is the chief avoidable cause of
death in our society. Smokers are more likely
than nonsmokers to contract heart disease - some
170,000 die each year from smoking-related coronary
heart disease. Lung, larynx, esophageal, bladder,
pancreatic, and kidney cancers also strike smokers
at increased rates. Some 30 percent of cancer
deaths (130,000 per year) are linked to smoking.
Chronic, obstructive lung diseases such as emphysema
and chronic bronchitis are 10 times more likely
to occur among smokers than among nonsmokers.
PREGNANCY: Smoking
during pregnancy also poses serious risks. Spontaneous
abortion, preterm birth, low birth weights, and
fetal and infant deaths are all more likely to
occur when the pregnant woman is a smoker.
SECONDHAND SMOKE:
Exposure to secondhand smoke is thought to cause
heart disease. In addition, each year an estimated
3,000 nonsmoking Americans die of lung cancer.
Exposure to secondhand smoke also causes respiratory
tract infections in up to 300,000 children annually.
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