Death by Smoking
How should your family describe your cause of death? Was it suicide, murder, an accident or stupidity?
The below chart was compiled using the most recent United States data available. While your nation's overall number of deaths per category may vary, the overall message will be the same. If a smoker, why fear lightening, sharks, snakes, or worry about wearing a helmet while riding a bike?
| Cause of Death | Data | Deaths |
|---|---|---|
| AIDS | 2018 | 15,820 |
| Asthma | 2019 | 3,524 |
| Auto Accidents | 2019 | 36,096 |
| Bicycle Accidents | 2019 | 846 |
| Breast Cancer | 2020 | 42,179 |
| Drowning | Average | 3,536 |
| Influenza | 2019 | 34,200 |
| Falls | 2019 | 39,433 |
| Fires | 2018 | 3,665 |
| Gun Accidents | 2018 | 458 |
| Hepatitis A, B & C | 2018 | 4,285 |
| Leukemia | 2020 | 23,100 |
| Lightening | 2019 | 20 |
| Liver Disease | 2019 | 44,358 |
| Lymphoma | 2020 | 19,920 |
| Meningitis | 2018 | 39 |
| Murder | 2019 | 16,425 |
| Parkinson Disease | 2018 | 33,829 |
| Prostate Cancer | 2020 | 34,130 |
| Shark Attacks | 2019 | 0 |
| Skin Cancer | 2017 | 8,056 |
| Snake Bites | Average | 5 |
| Suicide | 2019 | 47,511 |
| Tuberculosis | 2017 | 515 |
| Total | 411,950 | |
Smoking |
2019 | 480,000 |
Why Wear Seatbelts?
Today, there are 34 million current smokers in the United States, which is roughly 10% of our population. If 10% of the 36,096 who died in 2019 automobile accidents were smokers (3,609), your chances of dying from smoking are roughly 133 times greater than being killed in a vehicle collision. With such odds, why wear a seatbelt?
With roughly 200,000 middle-aged U.S.smokers expected to die from smoking-related diseases this year, each an average of 22.5 years early, wouldn't it make more sense to sell the seatbelts and airbags and use the money for a down payment on a coffin?
I corresponded with a 46-year-old with terminal lung cancer victim who had little time remaining. We found we had something in common. She mentioned that she always bought her cigarettes by the pack too because she always believed that tomorrow would finally be the day that she quit. We rolled the same dice. Her luck ran out. We both quit smoking. Sadly, with entirely different outcomes.
Why not stay off of the above list altogether and increase your odds of dying of natural causes at a ripe old age? Why continue your slow suicide via smoke's hundreds of toxins and accept 50 percent odds of losing roughly 5,000 sunrises?
If your addiction to inhaled nicotine kills you, should your family consider your death to be murder or an accident? You may want to explain it to them now because it's highly likely. It might help take the sting out of their coming belief that you loved nicotine more than them.
Which puff will birth that first cancerous cell or pulls death's trigger in generating a massive heart attack or stroke?
It isn't that we can't hear the world screaming the insanity of us smoking pack after pack. It's that our addicted limbic mind is screaming even louder that inhaled nicotine is as important as eating, that quitting is akin to starvation.
Nicotine addiction is a mental illness. It's a brain "wanting" disorder of the mind that's as permanent as alcoholism and enslaves the same dopamine pathways as illegal drugs.
WhyQuit is the embodiment of the principle that knowledge is power. Our goal is to help you become smarter and wiser than your addiction is strong. Millions of words but just one determining principle, the Law of Addiction.
A Few Victims
