Smoking Facts and Figures

A random list of statements, facts and figures relating to smoking. Hopefully this list will give you the final push to be committed to giving up smoking. When you have read it, visit abouthowtoquitsmoking for further information, help and advice. 

If you smoke more than 25 cigarettes a day are 25 times more likely to die from cancer and almost twice as likely to die from heart disease. 

Each cigarette on average takes 11 minutes off your life. 

Fifty diseases are caused by smoking causes. Twenty of them are fatal. 

Seven out of ten smokers say that they want to give up. 

Nicotine stimulates the central nervous system, which 
increases the heart rate and blood pressure. 

If you carry on smoking you have a one in two chance of dying from it. 

Smoking is the number one avoidable cause of premature death in the UK. 

Smoking related diseases cost the UK National Health Service about £1.7 billion a year. 

If you want facial wrinkles at an early age just carry on smoking. 

£1,600 that’s how much you could save if you gave up your twenty a day habit. 

Nicotine is an insecticide. 

£800 is what the average smoker give to the UK government in tax each year. 

The risk from smoking pipes can be as great as smoking cigarettes. 

Cigarettes contain tar, a complex mixture of chemicals, many of which are known to cause cancer. 

As each year passes, your addiction will become greater and will increase the difficulty of quitting. 

Any children growing up in a house where tobacco is regularly used are more likely to get asthma, pneumonia, ear infections, bronchitis and become tobacco users themselves. 

The benefits start as soon as you stop. 

Stomach ulcers are made worse by smoking. 

In the UK, about Three Hundred people are killed everyday, simply because they were smokers. 

You can always benefit from quitting smoking. Even if you are over 70 years of age. 

Cigarette smoking increases the risk of having a heart attack by two or three times. 

Every year 17,000 children under the age of five are admitted to hospital due to the effects of passive smoking. 

Smoking causes at least 80% of all deaths from lung cancer. 

Less than 10% of lung cancer patients survive five years. 

83% of smokers say they would not smoke if they had their life again. 

Teenage smokers experience more asthma and respiratory symptoms than non-smokers. 

Chemicals that can be found in tobacco smoke: 
Benzene - A poisonous gas found in petrol fumes. Known to 
cause leukaemia. 
Butane - Lighter fuel. 
Ethanol - Used in anti-freeze. 
Methanol - Used in rocket fuel. 
Ammonia - Used in many cleaning products. 
Acetone - Used in paint stripper. 
Cadmium - Used in car batteries. Known to cause cancer. 
Arsenic - Poison. 
Toluene - Industrial solvent. 

54% of people want smoking restrictions in pubs. 
85% favour smoking restrictions at work and in restaurants. 
Passive smoking doubles the risk of acute respiratory illness in children.