Every year, 430,000 people (that's 1200 people a day!) die in the United States die from tobacco related diseases. That is more than drugs, alcohol, automobile crashes, firearms, homicide, and suicide combined! Despite all the gain in knowledge that has been made over the last couple of decades about the harmful effects of tobacco, there are still thousands of people who start using tobacco products everyday! Obviously, the most damaging effect of tobacco products is the health risk. But that is not the only downfall of them; there is also all the money you pour into purchasing them after you are addicted; the money that Big Tobacco uses to hook more and more people everyday! Not to mention the image that it gives you in the public eye. News flash: It's NOT cool! .
The biggest hazard of using any kind of tobacco product is the large spectrum health effects that go along with it. Many people, such as athletes, don't smoke cigarettes because they know that it's bad for their lungs. Instead, they use chewing tobacco. But the fact is, chewing tobacco is just as dangerous to a person's health as cigarettes. So they lower the risk of getting lung cancer; instead, the gums and teeth rot, and there is a high risk of developing cancer in the mouth and throat. In addition, a smoker gets sick more easily and it takes longer for him to fully recover. He has an extremely high risk of heart disease, stroke, wrinkles, often develops emphysema, and a lifespan 10 years shorter than a non-smoker.
Along with health care problems go the thousands of dollars that must be paid for medical bills. Getting a cancerous tumor removed and being treated with radiation for cancers that have grown beyond the extent of being able to be removed is not cheap. Not to mention the numerous payments for trips to the doctor's office that smokers often make because their immune systems aren't up to par. Doctor bills aren't the only way that a person that uses tobacco products gets drained of money, though.
