NOT SMOKING

Not smoking is the single most effective thing we can do to prevent unnecessary death and disease in the United States.

Of the six factors that Dr. George Vaillant discovered that made the most difference between people over 50 who were in the "healthy happy" group or the "unhealthy unhappy" group in his studies of adult behavior at Harvard, as described in his book Aging Well, not smoking was at the top of the list.


Most widespread is cigarette smoking and the American Cancer Society estimates that it is responsible for one of every five deaths in the United States, or more than 440,000 deaths each year.


Alternatives such as smokeless tobacco, cigars, and pipes, however, also have deadly consequences, including lung, larynx, esophageal, and oral cancers.


And for those who wonder about just cutting back or substituting a safer form of the weed, low-tar cigarettes and other tobacco products are not safe either.

As if all this weren't bad enough, the harmful effects of smoking do not end with the smoker. Babies of women who smoke during pregnancy are more likely to have lower birth weights, an increased risk of death from sudden infant death syndrome, and respiratory distress. In addition, secondhand smoke also has harmful effects on nonsmokers. Each year, primarily because of exposure to secondhand smoke, an estimated 3,000 nonsmoking Americans die of lung cancer, and more than 35,000 die of heart disease. Each year, an estimated 150,000–300,000 children younger than 18 months of age have lower respiratory tract infections because of exposure to secondhand smoke. In a nutshell, tobacco use is bad however you look at it. If you use tobacco, quit!