The Legal Killer Of Tobacco - 1988 Words

The legal Killer Tobacco use is one of the leading causes of death in the United States, killing more Americans than HIV, drug and alcohol abuse, suicides, murders and car accidents combined. There are numerous campaigns such as D.A.R.E. and â€Å"Swipe Left† to help persuade us out of using tobacco products. Sayings like â€Å"Not even once† have even become clichà ©. However, studies have shown that one cigarette is all it takes to get addicted. Despite popular belief, smokeless tobacco is addictive as well. Big tobacco companies are famous for telling lies. In 1996, the tobacco industry said it was riskier to drink two cups of milk a day than one cigarette. They also said cigarettes were just as addictive as salt, sugar and internet usage.†¦show more content†¦The cigarette is the deadliest artifact in the history of human civilization. Approximately 42 million adults in the U.S. smoke cigarettes. Of those 42 million, 16 million of them live with tobacco-related diseases. An estimated 450,000 deaths occur each year that are caused by cigarette smoking. Lung cancer is the leading form of cancer in the U.S. and 90% of those with lung cancer were smokers. People who smoke are up to six times more likely to suffer a heart attack than nonsmokers, and the risk increases with the number of cigarettes smoked. Smoking also causes most cases of chronic obstructive lung disease. Although tobacco usage is most commonly associated with lung cancer, there are numerous other diseases linked to it. Of former smokers in the U.S., over 1 million have cancer other than lung cancer from smoking. Smoking increases the risk of strokes, tuberculosis, diabetes, liver failure, kidney failure, arthritis, stomach cancer, pancreas cancer, liver cancer, and bladder cancer. More than 10 times as many U.S. citizens have died prematurely from cigarette smoking than have died in all the wars fought by the United States during its history combined. Smoking in the twentieth century k illed over 100 million people. Even if present rates of consumption drop steadily to zero by 2100, we will still encounter around 300 million tobacco deaths this century. The cigarette is a defective product, meaning not just dangerous but unreasonably dangerous, killing half its