Today Is The 35th Annual Great American Smokeout

Smoking is the leading cause of premature death in the United States.^{1, 2}

Smoking causes heart disease (increases risk up to 4 times).
Smoking causes lung diseases (bronchitis, emphysema).
Smoking causes lung cancer (increases risk 23 times in men, 13 times in women!).
Smoking causes cancer of:

• Blood or bone marrow (leukemia)
  
• Bladder
  
• Cervix
  
• Esophagus
  
• Kidney
  
• Larynx
  
• Oral cavity (mouth)
  
• Pharynx (throat)
  
• Stomach
  
• Uterus

"Causes," not just "is correlated with."

For a causal relationship, "there must be enough scientific evidence that smoking either increases the overall number of cases of the disease or makes the disease occur earlier than it otherwise would."³

The US Surgeon General uses these criteria as a foundation for a causal relationship:

• Do multiple high-quality studies show a consistent association between smoking and disease?
  
• Are the measured effects large enough and statistically strong?
  
• Does the evidence show that smoking occurs before the disease occurs?
  
• Is the relationship between smoking and disease coherent or plausible in terms of known scientific principles, biologic mechanisms, and observed patterns of disease?
  
• Is there a dose-response relationship between smoking and disease?
  
• Is the risk of disease reduced after quitting smoking?

For all my talk of food ... Smoking (and second-hand smoke) is hands-down the most potent modifiable risk factor for disease, disability, and death that we know.
________ ¹ Actual Causes of Death in the United States, 2000, Journal of the American Medical Association, 2004
² CDC, Smoking and Tobacco Use, Health Effects of Cigarette Smoking
³ CDC, Smoking and Tobacco Use, How Do We Conclude That Smoking Is a Cause of Disease?