Health Effects of Smoking
How Smoking Affects Me
An estimated 440,000 Americans die each year from diseases caused by smoking. Smoking is responsible for an estimated one in five U.S. deaths and costs the U.S. over $150 billion each year in health care costs and lost productivity.
How Smoking Affect Others Around Me
There is no safe amount of secondhand smoke. When you are around a person who is smoking, you inhale the same dangerous chemicals as they do. Nonsmokers who breathe smoke at home, work or school are more likely to develop serious health complications.
The 2006 Surgeon General's report found that even brief exposures to secondhand smoke may have adverse effects on the heart and respiratory systems and increase the severity of asthma attacks.
Aside from the risk to the general campus community, secondhand smoke is particularly dangerous for people with cardiovascular disease, respiratory conditions such as asthma, COPD and certain allergies, older adults, pregnant women, and children.
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