Smoking and Mortality

More than 45,000 people will die this year in Canada due to smoking. Of those, more than 300 non-smokers will die of lung cancer and at least 700 non-smokers will die of coronary heart disease caused by exposure to second-hand smoke. Smoking is the cause of one-fifth of all deaths from cancer, heart disease and stroke in Canada.

Each year, more than 400,000 Americans die from cigarette smoking. In fact, one in every five deaths in the United States is smoking related.

Tobacco is the second major cause of death in the world. It is currently responsible for the death of one in ten adults worldwide (about 5 million deaths each year). If current smoking patterns continue, it will cause some 10 million deaths each year by 2020. Half the people that smoke today (about 650 million people) will eventually be killed by tobacco.

Smoking kills 50% of all people who smoke. Do you smoke? You have a one in two chance of dying from smoking; flip a coin.