Smoking Information
Smoking Facts
1. It may kill you – In plain and simple terms, smoking will take an average of seven years off your life. Your risk of heart disease is doubled if you smoke. One out of every five deaths in the United States is related to smoking-as is one out of every three deaths from cancer. That includes cancer of all kinds: Lung cancer, mouth and throat cancer, as well as cancers of the bladder, kidney, pancreas, stomach, and uterine cervix.
2. Smoking damages your lungs – To understand why smoking is so harmful, it helps to know how your lungs work. Every time you take a breath, air travels down your windpipe, or trachea, into the bronchial tubes, which branch like a tree into smaller, and smaller airways into the lungs, and end in tiny air sacs called alveoli. The alveoli transfer oxygen from the air you inhale directly into the bloodstream.
3. Specific complications from smoking include: Smokers cough, Chronic bronchitis, Emphysema, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), Lung Cancer,
- Cigarette smoking causes 87 percent of lung cancer deaths and is responsible for most cancers of the larynx, oral cavity, pharynx, esophagus, and bladder.
- Second-hand smoke is responsible for an estimated 3,000 lung cancer deaths, among U.S. nonsmokers each year.
- Tobacco smoke contains thousands of chemical agents, including over 60 substances that are known to cause cancer.
- The risk of developing smoking-related cancers, as well as noncancerous diseases, increases with total lifetime exposure to cigarette smoke.
- Smoking cessation has major, and immediate health benefits, including decreasing the risk of lung, and other cancers, heart attack, stroke, and chronic lung disease.
Quotes from Internal Tobacco Industry Documents
"…The immediate implication for our business is clear: if our consumers have fewer opportunities to enjoy our products, they will use them less frequently, and the result will be an adverse impact on our bottom line…the economic arguments often used by the industry to scare off smoking ban activity were no longer working, if indeed they ever did. These arguments simply had no credibility with the public. Which isn't surprising when you consider our dire predictions in the past rarely came true."
Philip Morris Tobacco Company, 1994, Tina Walls, Vice-President, State Government Affairs, "CAC Presentation Number 4 Tina Walls - Introduction"
1. Total prohibition of smoking in the workplace strongly affects industry volume. Smokers facing these restrictions consume 11-15% less than average, and quit at a rate that is 84% higher than average.
2. Milder workplace restrictions, such as smoking only in designated areas, have much less impact on quitting rate,and very little effect on consumption.
3. Smokers not in the labor force (retired, unemployed, housewives, etc.) quit at a rate 21% above average, and have also reduced their consumption noticeably over the last few years. These smokers may be much more sensitive to price increases, economic volatility, and health concerns.
4. From 1987-1991, the industry lost an estimated incremental 1.7% (9.5 billion units) due to increasing workplace restrictions. If these trends continue, the industry will lose an additional 1.3% to 1.9% (8.4 to 11.b billion units) from 1991 to 1996.
If smoking were banned in all workplaces, the industry's average consumption would decline 8.7%-10.1% from 1991 levels, and the quitting rate would increase 74%... Clearly, it is most important for PM to continue to support accommodation for smokers in the workplace...."
Philip Morris Tobacco Company interoffice correspondence, 1992, "Impact of Workplace Restrictions on Consumption and Incidence"
"The industry has faced more than 1,000 public smoking bills, and defeated more than 90 percent during the last decade. However, more smoking restriction bills have been enacted than any other type of 'anti-tobacco' bill. Such restrictions are in effect in 37 states, and Washington D.C., and may account for as much as 21 percent of the variation in cigarette consumption during 1961-1982, according to a recent study prepared by the Tobacco Merchant's Association (1)"
Tobacco Institute, 1984, "Workplace Smoking Restrictions: Communications and Lobbying Support Program"
"Bans/Restrictions Affect Consumption: 20% Quit Rate w/ U.S. Workplace Bans… Unless Restrictions are Stayed, Business Operations will be Irreversibly, and Negatively Impacted."
Philip Morris Report, 1994, "Problem: The Increase of Consumption Restrictions Worldwide"
"...What do these health claims, the heightened public sentiment for smoking restrictions, and increasing nonsmoker annoyance toward smokers mean for this industry? Lower sales, of course. The Tobacco Merchants Association took a look at smoking restriction legislation, and cigarette consumption between 1961 and 1982. The conclusion: that restrictive smoking laws accounted for 21 percent of the variation in cigarette consumption from state to state during that time. Our 1984 Roper data gives us another clue... Those who say they work under restrictions smoked about one-and-one-quarter fewer cigarettes each day than those who don't. That may sound light but remember we're talking about light restrictions, too. Those 220 people in our survey who work under smoking restrictions represent some 15 million Americans. That one-and-one-quarter per day cigarette reduction then, means nearly 7 billion fewer cigarettes smoked each year because of workplace smoking restrictions... That's 350 million packs of cigarettes. At a dollar a pack, even the lightest of workplace smoking restrictions is costing this industry 233 million dollars a year in revenue."
Tobacco Institute presentation, (no date available) "I. PUBLIC SMOKING: THE PROBLEM (SDC INTRODUCTION)"