-> Fast Facts about Tobacco | What Smoking Costs You | | Display Ban | Myths
Smoking & the Environment | Second-Hand Smoke

Fast Facts & More

What Smoking Costs You

Appearance

  • Smelly breath, clothing and hair. 1
  • Yellow teeth and skin. 2,3
  • Wrinkles and ages your skin. 4
  • Cracked lips, white spots, sores, and bleeding in the mouth after short-term use of spit tobacco. 5
  • Serious changes in the face as a result of surgery to remove oral cancer caused by spit tobacco. 6

Athletic Ability

  • Increased carbon dioxide in the blood reduces the blood's ability to carry oxygen to your muscles during sports. 7
  • Less oxygen means less energy.
  • Increased heart rate and blood pressure. 8
  • Decreased athletic ability. 9
  • Chronic cough, phlegm, wheezing. 10
  • Smokers suffer shortness of breath almost 3 times more often than non-smokers. 11
  • Slows lung growth and reduces lung function. 12
  • Frequent illness like chest colds, flu and bronchitis. 13
  • Increased problems from asthma. 14

Spending Money

  • At about $8 a pack, and if you smoke a half a pack/day you will spend $1460 a year on cigarettes or about the cost of about 3 Xbox 360s or 121 movie tickets.

Health

Some of the problems associated with smoking:

  • Impotence 15
  • Cancer (mouth, larynx, pharynx, esophagus, lungs, pancreas, cervix, uterus, bladder, kidney and stomach) 16
  • Heart disease and stroke 17
  • Damage, decay and disease to teeth and gums 18
  • Nicotine addiction.

Within 20 minutes after you smoke that last cigarette, your body begins a series of changes that continue for years. 19

  • 20 Minutes after your last cigarette
    Your heart rate drops.
  • 12 hours after your last cigarette
    Carbon monoxide level in your blood drops to normal.
  • 2 Weeks to 3 Months after your last cigarette
    Your heart attack risk begins to drop.
    Your lung function begins to improve.
  • 1 to 9 Months after your last cigarette
    Your coughing and shortness of breath decrease.
  • 1 Year after your last cigarette
    Your added risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a smoker's.

References:

  1. www.cdc.gov/tobacco/youth/information_sheets/yuthfax1.htm
  2. Ibid
  3. Helfrich, YR et al. 2007, Effect of smoking on aging of photoprotected skin. Archives of Dermatology.
  4. Koh, J. et al. 2002, Cigarette smoking associated with premature facial wrinkling: image analysis of facial  skin replicas. International Journal of Dermatology.
  5. www.cdc.gov/tobacco/youth/information_sheets/yuthfax1.htm
  6. Ibid
  7. Ibid
  8. Ibid
  9. Surgeon's General Report 2004.
  10. Ibid
  11. www.cdc.gov/tobacco/youth/information_sheets/yuthfax1.htm
  12. Surgeon's General Report 2004.
  13. Ibid
  14. Ibid
  15. Gades, N et al. 2005, Association between smoking and erectile dysfunction: A population-based study. American Journal of Epidemiology.
  16. Surgeon's General Report 2004
  17. Ibid
  18. Ibid
  19. www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/sgr/sgr_2004/posters/20mins.htm