Along with problem births and increased chance of cancer and heart disease, cigarettes contributes greatly to gastrointestinal issues and periodontal disease.

The facts about smoking get more apparent every year. because of smoking, over 400,000 North Americans, 35 and over, are expected to die every year. (16,000 women and 30,000 men). In Canada in the province of Ontario smoking kills more than 13,000 people a year. (20% of all provincial deaths, )or over 35 each day, matched to 3,000 yearly deaths by automobile crashes, suicides, homicide and AIDS-related deaths combined.

Cigarettes are a huge burden for us all, costing $60 to $80 billion in health costs, and $70 billion in indirect costs for tobacco-related deaths each year. Nearly one-half of potential life expectancy is lost due to breathing illnesses, one-quarter of prospective life expectancy is ruined by heart disease and 1/3 of expected years of lifespan are ruined due to cancer caused by Tobacco.

In 26 percent of North American households, at least one person smokes a cigarette within the house daily. Eighty per cent of tobacco users that have been discovered and well-advised to give up smoking say that they would like to quit smoking (1998, Brodish). Tobacco, in all of its forms, creates a habitual need in the user. Both mentally and physically, tobacco is an addiction. One of the most addictive drugs known to man is nicotine.

Other facts about smoking to consider are second hand smoke or environmental tobacco fumes is a poisonous concoction of chemicals brought about during the combustion and smoking of tobacco products. Second-hand smoke contains almost 4,000 compounds. Cancer is caused by at least 40 of them. The common supplemental yearly price to an employer for hiring a smoker has been calculated to be $2,565 ***(Conference Board of Canada, 1997).

Each year in North America there are approximately 80-100,000 premature deaths due to exposure of secondary fumes by second hand smoking. Respiration problems and lung infections are common to minors exposed to second-hand smoke.