Tobacco Use

Phone: 518-648-6497
Toll free: 1-888-648-6497
Fax: 518-648-6143
Agency e-mail: hcphns@frontiernet.net

The Burden of Tobacco Use and Secondhand Smoke

Every year in New York State smoking kills 25,500 people, secondhand smoke kills 2,500, and 570,000 New Yorkers are afflicted with serious disease caused by smoking. It is projected that 389,000 New York State youth currently aged 0-17 will die from smoking.

Smoking causes cancer, heart disease, stroke, and lung diseases (including emphysema, bronchitis, and chronic airway obstruction). For every person who dies from a smoking-related disease, 20 more people suffer with at least one serious illness from smoking.

Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death.

Worldwide, tobacco use causes more than 5 million deaths per year, and current trends show that tobacco use will cause more than 8 million deaths annually by 2030. In the United States, tobacco use is responsible for about one in five deaths annually (i.e., about 443,000 deaths per year, and an estimated 49,000 of these tobacco-related deaths are the result of secondhand smoke exposure. On average, smokers die 13 to 14 years earlier than nonsmokers. [Statistics from CDC website]