Tobacco-Related Mortality

Fact sheet

February 2004

Overall Mortality

• Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States.1 Cigarette smoking causes an estimated 440,000 deaths, or about 1 of every 5 deaths, each year.2,3 This estimate includes 35,000 deaths from secondhand smoke exposure.2
   
• Cigarette smoking kills an estimated 264,000 men and 178,000 women in the United States each year.2
   
• More deaths are caused each year by tobacco use than by all deaths from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, suicides, and murders combined.2,4
   
• On average, adults who smoke cigarettes die 13–14 years earlier than nonsmokers.2
   
• Based on current cigarette smoking patterns, an estimated 25 million Americans who are alive today will die prematurely from smoking-related illnesses, including 5 million people younger than 18.5
   

Mortality from Specific Diseases

• Lung cancer (124,000), heart disease (111,000), and the chronic lung diseases of emphysema, bronchitis, and chronic airways obstruction (82,000) are responsible for the largest number of smoking-related deaths.2
   
• The risk of dying from lung cancer is more than 22 times higher among men who smoke cigarettes and about 12 times higher among women who smoke cigarettes compared with never smokers.6
   
• Since 1950, lung cancer deaths among women have increased by more than 600%.1 Since 1987, lung cancer has been the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women.1
   
• Cigarette smoking results in a two- to three-fold increased risk of dying from coronary heart disease.6
   
• Cigarette smoking is associated with a ten-fold increased risk of dying from chronic obstructive lung disease.6 About 90% of all deaths from chronic obstructive lung diseases are attributable to cigarette smoking.1,6
   

Pipe smoking and cigar smoking increase the risk of dying from cancers of the lung, esophagus, larynx, and oral cavity.7 Smokeless tobacco use increases the risk for developing oral cancer.8

References

1. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Women and Smoking: A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, CDC, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health; 2001. Accessed: February 2004.
    
   
2. CDC. Annual smoking-attributable mortality, years of potential life lost, and economic costs—United States, 1995–1999. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 2002;51(14):300–303. ( PDF - 225k) Accessed: February 2004.
    
   
3. CDC. Health United States, 2003 With Chartbook on Trends in the Health of Americans. (PDF - 119k)  Hyattsville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, CDC, National Center for Health Statistics; 2003. Accessed: February 2004.
    
   
4. McGinnis J, Foege WH. Actual causes of death in United States. Journal of American Medical Association 1993;270:2207–2212.
    
   
5. CDC. Perspectives in disease prevention and health promotion, smoking-attributable mortality and years of potential life lost—United States, 1984. ( PDF - 309k) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 1997;46:444–451. Accessed: February 2004.
    
   
6. Novotny TE, Giovino GA. Tobacco use. In: Brownson RC, Remington PL, Davis JR (eds). Chronic Disease Epidemiology and Control. Washington, DC: American Public Health Association; 1998;117–148.
    
   
7. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Reducing the Health Consequences of Smoking — 25 Years of Progress: A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, CDC; 1989. DHHS Pub. No. (CDC) 89-8411. Accessed: February 2004.
    
   
8. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of Using Smokeless Tobacco: A Report of the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General, 1986. Bethesda, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service. NIH Pub. No. 86-2874. Accessed: February 2004.

Note: The next update of this fact sheet is scheduled for February 2005. More recent information may be available at the CDC'S Office on Smoking and Health Web site: http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco.
 
For Further Information

Office on Smoking and Health
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Mailstop K-50
4770 Buford Hwy., N.E.
Atlanta, GA 30341-3717
770-488-5705
http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco

Media Inquiries: Contact the CDC's Office on Smoking and Health press line at 770-488-5493.