Learn about commercial tobacco products, their health effects, usage in the United States, and more. Find information on secondhand smoke, smokefree policies, and more. Commercial tobacco-related disparities result in higher levels of disease, disability, and death. There's no way around it. Smoking is bad for your health. Learn the effects of smoking (how smoking harms nearly every organ) and how to quit. Smoking does more than just cause cancer. It can also damage nearly every organ in your body. Learn more about the health effects of smoking tobacco. Cigarette smoking is a major public health concern, with over 16 million Americans living with a smoking-related disease. Smoking and secondhand smoke exposure cause over 480,000 deaths in the U.S. each year. Smoking harms nearly every organ of the body and causes many diseases. Smoking harms nearly every organ in the body, and is a main cause of lung cancer and COPD. It also is a cause of coronary heart disease, stroke and a host of other cancers and diseases. Smoking is when you inhale smoke from burning plant material. It can cause serious heart and lung diseases, cancer and other health issues. Today, smoking is mostly practiced by rolling the dried leaves of the tobacco plant into a cigarette. Other forms of tobacco smoking include the use of smoking tobacco with a pipe or cigar, or using a bong. Cigarette smokers almost always inhale the smoke; most pipe and cigar smokers do not inhale. [1] Smoking is dangerous to your health. It can harm nearly every organ in your body and increase your risk of certain health conditions like glaucoma, cancer, and lung disease. A fact sheet that lists some of the cancer-causing chemicals in tobacco smoke and describes the health problems caused by cigarette smoking and the benefits of quitting. smoking, the act of inhaling and exhaling the fumes of burning Nicotiana plant material. A variety of plant materials are smoked, including marijuana and hashish, but the act is most commonly associated with tobacco (Nicotiana) as smoked in a cigarette, cigar, or pipe.