Here are some facts about cigarette smoke:

1. Each year 430,000 people will die from the effects of cigarette smoking

2. Smoking causes 20% (or 1 in 5) of all deaths in the United States each year.

3. Cigarette smoking causes the following serious diseases:

 emphysema

 lung cancer

 chronic bronchitis

 heart disease and stroke

4. Every day, more than 3,000 adolescents in the United States smoke their first cigarette, taking the first step toward becoming regular smokers by the time they reach adulthood. One third of these new smokers will eventually die of tobacco- related diseases.

5. Smoking is a "pediatric disease." Eighty-nine percent of all people who ever try a cigarette, try by age 18. Of people who have ever smoked daily, 71% were smoking daily by age 18. Virtually no one starts smoking during adulthood.

6. Forty-two percent of young people who smoke as few as three cigarettes go on to become regular smokers.

7. Seventy percent of adolescent smokers say they would not have started if they could choose again.

8. Lung cancer has surpassed coronary heart disease as the leading cause of smoking-related premature death among middle class, white smokers.

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