Women & Smoking

One of every five women in America is a smoker. Twenty-three percent of all adult Americans and 21% of American women are currently smokers.

Every year, tobacco-related disease kills over 178,000 women, making it the largest preventable cause of death among women in the U.S.

Smoking is responsible for the premature deaths of approximately 3 million women since 1985.

Women who die of a smoking-related disease lose, on average, 14.5 years of potential life. Men who die of a smoking-related disease lose 13 years of life, on average.

Stroke is the third leading cause of death in the United States.7In 2000 more than 100,000 women (and about 65,000 men) died of stroke.

Heavy smokers (two packs a day) are twice as likely as those who smoke half a pack a day to have a stroke.

Five to 15 years after quitting, the risk of stroke among former smokers approaches that of a person who has never smoked.