Smoking is the nation’s leading cause of preventable deaths and is believed to be responsible for a wide variety of diseases. The CDC count for 1988 included 111,985 deaths from lung cancer, 30,850 deaths from other smoking-related cancers such as mouth and pancreatic cancer, 197,820 deaths from cardiovascular diseases and 82,857 deaths from lung diseases such as emphysema. An additional 1,303 people died in fires caused by smoking and 2,552 babies’ deaths were attributed to their mothers’ smoking habits. The CDC report also said that that 3,825 nonsmokers died from lung cancer caused by passive smoking–inhaling others’ smoke.
In spite of these grim statistics, there’s still some hope for smokers. Roper said that kicking the habit at any age lowers the risk. “It’s never too late to quit,” he said. “People at whatever age–25 or 85–will benefit from stopping smoking.”
