Cigarette smoking is the leading preventable cause of disease, death, and disability in the United States.

Tobacco kills more than 490,000 people annually – more than alcohol, car accidents, illegal drugs, murders and suicides combined.

Cigarette smoking causes cancer, heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, harmful reproductive health effects, and other diseases that may affect the immune system or other organs.

All forms of tobacco use are harmful, and there is no safe level of exposure to tobacco.

Among smokers who are aware of the dangers of tobacco, most want to quit. Counselling and medication can more than double a tobacco user’s chance of successful quitting.

In 2018, cigarette smoking cost the United States more than an estimated $600 billion including more than $240 billion in health care spending.