Health risks are reduced substantially even if you quit at age 70. . The National Cancer Institute says on average, after 10 to 15 years a previous tobacco user's risk of premature death approaches that of a person who has never smoked. People who stop smoking before age 35 avoid 90% of the health risks attributable to tobacco. Even those who quit later in life can significantly reduce their risk of dying at a younger age. Smokers who quit before age 50, on average, have half the risk of dying in the next 16 years compared with people who continue to smoke. By age 64, their overall chance of dying is similar to that of people the same age who have never smoked. People who quit smoking cut their risk of lung cancer by 30% to 50% after 10 years compared to continuing smokers, and cut their risk of oral and esophageal cancer in half within 5 years after quitting.

According to the US Surgeon General's Report, 1990, the excess risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a smoker's, and after 15 years smoke-free, the risk levels drop to that of someone who never smoked.

The success rate is 30 percent among those who enter smoking-cessation programs with counseling and support.

The success rate doubles among those in a program that includes follow-up appointments and a set quit date. A study reported in Feb. 2005 by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute found that an intervention program included behavior modification (counseling), the use of nicotine gum, and a continuing five-year maintenance program to minimize relapse lead to. approximately 22 percent of the participants being sustained quitters 5 years after the program; nearly 90 percent of them continued not to smoke after 11 years. About 5 percent of those who did not receive the intervention were sustained quitters after five years.

Almost 50 percent of the attempts to quit are supported with the patch. Gum is used 28 percent of the time, medication 21 percent.

Women smokers are 54 percent less likely to conceive than nonsmokers within a year of attempting to get pregnant. Smoking also reduces men's sperm count.

Smoking at an early age results in a more severe addiction as an adult.

About 25 percent of 12- and 13-year-olds have smoked.

Today, 48 million Americans smoke.