Read this fact sheet before you smoke your next cigarette. The health benefits to be gained from quitting, both instantaneously and in the long-term, are too great to be ignored, and so are the dangers of continuing to smoke.

The financial impact smoking has on individuals and on society as a whole continues to become more and more shocking as the actual price of cigarettes steadily rises along with the cost of health care. It's estimated that nearly $80 billion is spent each year in the U.S. alone on health care costs that are incurred from treating smoking related conditions and diseases.

Important Smoking Facts

- Smoking is the leading cause of preventable deaths each year.

- It isn't too late to quit-just minutes after putting out your last cigarette, your circulation, blood pressure and heart rate will have already improved. Just 24 hours later, your risk of a heart attack has dropped. Once you've gone just a few days smoke-free, any tissue in your lungs not permanently damaged will begin the process of healing itself.

- After 15 years of being completely smoke-free, an ex-smoker has about the same chances of having a stroke as someone who has never smoked in their lifetime.

- Smoking drains energy levels by increasing carbon monoxide in the bloodstream.

- Besides the obvious lung cancer, smoking also contributes to cancer of the mouth, esophagus, larynx, pharynx, pancreas, and bladder.

- Nicotine can cause illnesses such as emphysema, chronic bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, depression, diabetes, osteoporosis, and Alzheimer's disease.

- Beating a nicotine addiction can clear up chronic coughing, sinus congestion, and shortness of breath.

- Smoking during pregnancy seriously increases the risk of a stillbirth, as well as sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), and causes a decrease in birth weight.

Little Known Facts About Cigarettes

- One in every four men smokes even in the face of these alarming risks.

- Secondhand smoke, also referred to as environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), is responsible for over 3,000 deaths each and every year in the United States.

- Smoking decreases levels of fertility in both men and women and also increases a man's chances of becoming impotent.

- One cigarette contains over 4,000 chemicals including formaldehyde, insecticide, acetone(which you may recognize as nail polish remover) and hydrazine(rocket fuel.)

- 8 out of 10 smokers first puffed a cigarette before reaching the age of 18.

- People who have beaten addictions to both cigarettes and the powerful narcotic heroin report finding it more difficult to quit cigarettes than heroin.

- Among the most popular methods for finally quitting are nicotine replacement therapy through the use of patches, gums, and lozenges, and prescription drugs like varenicline and buproprion.

- Each day nearly 5,000 teenagers begin smoking.