Facts about smoking cigarettes

On average, smokers die 10 years earlier than non-smokers.

Smokers have a 44 per cent higher chance of developing Type Two diabetes compared to non-smokers.

Nicotine is five to 10 times more potent than cocaine or morphine.

For every person who dies from a smoking-related disease, 20 more people suffer with at least one serious illness from smoking.

Second-hand smoke causes more than 600,000 premature deaths per year. In 2004, children account for 28 per cent of the deaths from smoking.

Tobacco kills prematurely. On average, smokers lose 15 years of life, and up to half of all smokers will die of tobacco-related causes.

80,000 to 100,000 young people around the world become addicted daily.

250 million children and young people alive today will die from tobacco related diseases.

Nearly some 90 per cent of non-smokers have some residue of cigarette smoke in their blood.

Of the 3,000 teens who started smoking today, nearly 1,000 will eventually die as a result from smoking.

Cigarette smoking has been identified as the most important source of preventable morbidity and premature mortality in the world.

Of the 3,200 Jamaicans who die from cancer yearly, 960 are tobacco related.