Cigarettes (information taken from Oral Cancer Foundation)

"Cigarette smokers die younger than nonsmokers. In fact, smoking decreases a person's life expectancy by 10-12 years. Smokers between the ages of 35 and 70 have death rates three times higher than those who have never smoked." "...while the odds for those trying crack or alcohol and becoming addicts are 1 in 6 and 1 in 10 respectively, they're 9 in 10 for cigarette smokers," reports the chief of clinical pharmacology, National Institute on Drug Abuse. "Smoking is the single most preventable cause of death in our society." "More than 47 million adults in the United States smoke cigarettes despite the fact that this single behavior will result in the death or disability of half all its regular users." "Cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 430,000 deaths in the United States each year, or one in every five deaths."

• Chronic bronchitis, a disease in which the airways produce excess mucus, forcing the smoker to cough frequently, is a common ailment for smokers.
  
• Cigarette smoking is also the major cause of emphysema, a disease that slowly destroys a person's ability to breathe.
  
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema, kills about 81,000 people each year.
• In addition to being responsible for 87 percent of lung cancers, smoking is also associated with cancers of the mouth, pharynx, larynx, esophagus, pancreas, uterine cervix, kidney and bladder.

• Cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 65,000 of these deaths.
• Smoking cigarettes also increases the risk of heart disease, which is America's number one killer.
• Almost 180,000 Americans die each year from cardiovascular disease caused by smoking.
• Smoking, high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol and lack of exercise are all risk factors for heart disease, but smoking alone doubles the risk of heart disease.
• Among those who have previously had a heart attack, smokers are more likely than non-smokers to have another.