Smoking is the biggest cause of preventable illness, disability and death in Alberta and in Canada. Smoking causes 20% of all deaths from cancer, heart disease and stroke in Canada. Over 47,000 people in this country die each year from smoking. About 3,400 of those people are Albertans.
Even though smoking rates in Canada have gone down, death rates continue to go up. That's because death rates today reflect the smoking behaviour of the 1970s and 1980s. Since 1991, tobacco-related deaths in Canada have increased by about 13%. Of these deaths, over seven out of 10 were women, because women’s rates of smoking kept climbing into the 1970s.
Quick facts
- Smoking is the leading cause of preventable illness, disability and death in Canada.
- Smoking kills more people in this country than HIV/AIDS, car accidents, murder, suicide and illegal drug use combined.
- Half of all regular smokers will eventually die from their habit, most before their natural time.
- On average, smokers lose about 15 years off their lives.
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