Four Major Conclusions of the 2004 Smoking Report

Smoking harms nearly every organ of the body, causing many diseases and reducing the health of smokers in general.
Quitting smoking has immediate as well as long-term benefits, reducing risks for diseases caused by smoking and improving health in general.
Smoking cigarettes with lower machine-measured yields of tar and nicotine provides no clear benefit to health.
The list of diseases caused by smoking has been expanded to include abdominal aortic aneurysm, acute myeloid leukemia, cataract, cervical cancer, kidney cancer, pancreatic cancer, pneumonia, periodontitis, and stomach cancer. These are in addition to diseases previously known to be caused by smoking, including bladder, esophageal, laryngeal, lung, oral, and throat cancers, chronic lung diseases, coronary heart and cardiovascular diseases, as well as reproductive effects and sudden infant death syndrome.

Cancer is the second leading cause of death and was among the first diseases causally linked to smoking. (p. 39) Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death, and cigarette smoking causes most...

Since the first Surgeon General’s report on smoking and health in 1964, 27 additional reports have concluded that tobacco use is the single most avoidable cause of disease, disability, and death in the...