* Cigarettes and other forms of tobacco are addictive.
* Nicotine is the drug in tobacco that causes addiction.
* The pharmacologic and behavioural processes that determine tobacco addiction are similar to those that determine addiction to drugs such as heroin and cocaine.
* Tobacco smoke contains over 4,000 different chemicals. At least 50 are known carcinogens (cause cancer in humans) and many are poisonous.
* Cigarette smoking causes heart attacks, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), emphysema, and cancer (particularly lung cancer, cancers of the larynx and mouth, and pancreatic cancer).
* Cigarette smokers generally weigh less (approximately 7 lb less on average) than non-smokers.
* Stress increases cigarette consumption among smokers.
* Smoking-material (lighted tobacco products including cigarettes) fires result in more deaths than any other type of residential fire.2
* One out of four fatal victims of smoking-material fires is not the smoker whose cigarette started the fire.2
* Tobacco dependence and nicotine addiction can be treated successfully.
* The World Health Organization estimates that tobacco caused 100 million deaths over the course of the 20th century.
* The death toll is projected to reach more than 8 million by 2030 if current trends continue.3
* There could be up to one billion deaths in the 21st century.3
* Almost half of the world's children breathe air polluted by tobacco smoke, which worsens their asthma conditions and causes dangerous diseases.3
* The International Labour Organization estimates that at least 200 000 workers die every year due to exposure to smoke at work.3
* Tobacco kills up to half of its regular users.
* On average 29% of people around the world smoke tobacco.
* An estimated 700 million children, or almost half of the world's children, breathe air polluted by tobacco smoke, particularly at home.3
