How many non smokers die

Smoking and Tobacco Control Monograph No. Bethesda MD : U. World Health Organization. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 62 08 ; [accessed Aug 17].

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Health Effects of Secondhand Smoke. Section Menu. Key Facts about Secondhand Smoke Secondhand smoke causes approximately 7, deaths from lung cancer and 33, deaths from heart disease each year. Surgeon General. The report also concluded that secondhand smoke is a definitive cause of stroke.

Levels of secondhand smoke in restaurants and bars were found to be times higher than in residences with smokers, and times higher than in office workplaces. Clearly, military personnel are subject to increased risk factors from a wide variety of causes and exposures. For example, many have been exposed to radon, asbestos, beryllium, fuel exhaust and other battlefield emissions. Some Vietnam veterans were exposed to Agent Orange, a herbicide used to kill vegetation in the jungle.

Gulf War veterans were exposed to depleted uranium used in weapons and armor shielding. Depleted uranium ordinance is being found to cause obstructive bronchiolitis within months or years of exposure.

So, it is acknowledged that the increased incidence of pulmonary disease and lung cancer among the veteran population certainly has compounded exposure factors beyond just smoking. With this background, what are the specific hazards of tobacco?

The big three are lung cancer, heart disease and chronic lung disease i. In terms of individual risk, smoking increases the risk of coronary heart disease by about times, lung cancer by 23 times, and COPD by times. As stated earlier, it is important to realize that since coronary artery disease is comparatively common, doubling or quadrupling the risk is a very large number of additional people who get coronary artery disease who smoke.

Although lung cancer is not nearly as common, when the risk goes up 23 times it does become common. The same goes for COPD. And once these diseases develop, they remain for life. Coronary artery disease and COPD can be treated, but not cured. The clock cannot be turned back. As for lung cancer, a few are cured today. And despite major advances in diagnosis and treatment, most individuals who develop lung cancer die within a few years. Unlike many other cancers, lung cancer mortality has not changed since the mortality rates for all cancers were first published by the NCI in There are other diseases caused or exacerbated by tobacco smoking including stroke and narrowed arteries to the legs and feet.

Some of the other cancers caused, at least in part, by tobacco smoking are some leukemias and cancers of the throat, mouth, nasal cavity, esophagus, stomach, pancreas, kidney, bladder, and cervix. Smoking has been linked as a causative factor in the rapid loss of calcium to the bones of post-menopausal women, effectively leading to greater osteoporosis and hence more hip fractures in older individuals.

Smoking during reproductive years can mean infertility and premature births. These are all preventable outcomes, meaning that smoking is the most preventable cause of death and disease in the United States today.

It is rapidly becoming more significant in less developed countries. Today, there are about 40 million Americans who smoke, but internationally the total is about 1.

Mostly these smokers live in the developing world where the percentage of smokers is high and rising. There is, unfortunately, no suggestion that the initiation of smoking is declining, indeed it is still increasing. Smoking harms women and men equally — It had been thought that women were somehow less affected than men by tobacco smoke. That is simply not true. There is no gender gap.

Once the machine manufacturing of cigarettes began in the early 20th century, men picked up the habit, especially in the aftermath of World War I. For women, smoking was largely considered socially unacceptable at that time.

Since it takes 20 to 30 or more years to induce the various smoking-related diseases, men began to develop lung cancer, symptomatic COPD, recognized coronary artery disease and so on only after World War II. Women only began to smoke regularly after World War II and as manufacturers began to specifically target their advertising to women, with brands like Virginia Slims. However now, the rates of disease are the same for anyone who has smoked many cigarettes per day or packs per day for many years.

Tobacco has more than just nicotine and tar in its smoke. Over 4, chemicals have been detected in smoke and perhaps are proven harmful according to the Centers for Disease Control CDC. Among them are some commonly known chemicals like arsenic, benzene, cadmium, chromium and formaldehyde.

Carbon monoxide is also released in tobacco smoke and binds up the hemoglobin in the red blood cells that normally carry oxygen. Carbon monoxide also affects arteries and speeds up the process of coronary artery disease or atherosclerosis.

Nicotine is highly addictive and also has a narrowing effect on arteries including coronary arteries. Secondhand smoke — If it takes heavy smoking for many years to lead to high rates of disease then can secondhand smoke be much of a problem? The answer is definitively and definitely yes. Secondhand smoke is especially dangerous to children who will develop more respiratory infections and many will later progress to the same diseases as direct smokers, albeit in lower numbers.

The result is that, as the NCI reported, nearly 50, people die from coronary artery disease each year as a result of secondhand smoke along with about 3, dying of lung cancer. Terry, M.