Overview

Cigarettes like other tobacco products, do carry serious health effects with them. Nicotine, the primary psychoactive chemical in tobacco and therefore cigarettes, is addictive. About half of cigarette smokers die of tobacco-related disease and lose on average 14 years of life. Cigarette use by pregnant women has also been shown to cause birth defects, including mental and physical disabilities. Second-hand smoke from cigarettes has been shown to be injurious to bystanders,which has led to legislation that has banned their smoking in many workplaces and public areas. Cigarettes are the most frequent source of fires leading to loss of lives in private homes, which has prompted the European Union and the United States to ban cigarettes that are not fire standard compliant by 2011.