Facts About Cigarette

* 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