Tobacco

Why this page is first

Of everything on this whole site, this is the page with the most cancer in it.

CDC attributes more than 480,000 deaths a year in the United States to smoking and secondhand smoke, and almost nine of every ten lung cancer deaths. In 2022, CDC counted over 742,000 tobacco-associated cancer cases.

It is not only lungs

This is the part most people have not been told. NCI lists smoking as a cause of cancer in the lung, esophagus, larynx, mouth, throat, kidney, bladder, liver, pancreas, stomach, cervix, colon, and rectum, plus acute myeloid leukemia, a cancer of the blood.

Thirteen sites and a blood cancer. CDC's list is the same.

Other people's smoke

NCI states that inhaling secondhand smoke causes lung cancer in nonsmoking adults, and estimates about 7,300 lung cancer deaths a year among nonsmoking adults in the United States from that exposure.

NCI is careful about the rest. Some research suggests secondhand smoke may increase the risk of breast cancer, nasal cavity cancer, and nasopharyngeal cancer in adults, and of leukemia, lymphoma, and brain tumors in children. NCI's own conclusion on those: more research is needed to determine whether a link exists. We will leave it there too.

Quitting, by age

NCI reports how much life is gained on average by quitting at different ages, compared with people who keep smoking:

• Quit at 25 to 34: about 10 years
• Quit at 35 to 44: about 9 years
• Quit at 45 to 54: about 6 years
• Quit at 55 to 64: about 4 years

NCI adds that people who quit before 40 reduce their chance of dying early from smoking-related disease by about 90 percent, and those who quit at 45 to 54 reduce it by about two-thirds.

Notice that no line in that list says zero. The gain gets smaller with age and never disappears. If you have been told it is too late, that is not what the federal data says.

Other tobacco products

Smokeless tobacco. NCI states it causes oral cancer, esophageal cancer, and pancreatic cancer, and that at least 28 chemicals in it have been found to cause cancer.

Cigars. NCI states cigar smoking causes cancer of the mouth, larynx, esophagus, and lung, and that it may also cause pancreatic cancer. The more smoked, the greater the risk.

E-cigarettes. CDC states there are no safe tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, that they may contain cancer-causing chemicals, and that they should not be used by youth, young adults, or people who are pregnant. CDC also says plainly that more research is needed on the health effects, and that no e-cigarette has been approved by FDA as a way to quit smoking. What is not yet established is whether they cause cancer, and how much. We are not going to fill that gap in either direction.

Getting help

Quitting is a medical event, not a test of character, and there is help that works better than willpower alone. A clinician or pharmacist can talk through medicines and nicotine replacement. In the United States, 1-800-QUIT-NOW connects to a free state quitline.