• About one of every five deaths in the country is caused by cigarette smoking, including exposure to secondhand smoke.
• On average, adults who smoke cigarettes will die 14 years earlier than non-smokers. 
• There is nothing healthy about tobacco!

Tobacco On-line Resources and Fact Sheet

• High school students who smoke: 18%
• Male high school students who use smokeless or spit tobacco: 10.5% (females use much lower)
• Kids (under 18) who become new daily smokers each year: 1,900
• Kids exposed to secondhand smoke at home: 79,000
• Packs of cigarettes bought or smoked by kids each year: 2.3 million
• Adults in Maine who smoke: 20.9% (217,400)
• Adults who die each year from their own smoking: 2,200
• Kids now under 18 and alive in Maine who will ultimately die prematurely from smoking: 27,000
• Annual health care costs in Maine directly caused by smoking: $602 million
• Portion covered by the state Medicaid program: $216 million
• Residents state & federal tax burden from smoking-caused government expenditures: $658 per household
• Smoking-caused productivity losses in Maine: $495 million
   

• Tobacco smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals, and 40 carcinogens. 
• The Surgeon General stated in a 2006 that there is “no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke.” 
• Secondhand smoke exposure is responsible for approximately 3,400 lung cancer deaths and 22,700-69,600 heart disease deaths among nonsmokers in the United States each year. It is a known cause of other pediatric ailments such as ear infections, respiratory tract infections, and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). 
• Everyday in Maine, one non-smoker dies from exposure to secondhand smoke.
• Smoking harms nearly every organ in the body. Smoking kills more people than alcohol, HIV/AIDS, car crashes, illegal drugs, murders, and suicides combined.