Smoking is something millions of Americans do every day, and companies earn millions of dollars every year through the sale of cigarettes, but at what cost ? Five dollars a pack for lung cancer and a heart attack. A deadly addiction comparable to heroin or cocaine, cigarettes are the only product that effectively kills more than five million people a year - one million in the Americas - and is still legal. The damage it causes only appears years after habitual use. The government should enact a federal ban on cigarettes due to negative health effects. Smoking is a dangerous and addictive habit; Each year approximately 440,000 people die in the United States due to tobacco smoking (Maugh). Of these 440,000, more than a third suffer from heart disease. Cigarettes increase the risk of heart disease, stroke and various types of cancer, from lung cancer to pancreas, and are the leading cause of premature death in developing countries. In adults, smoking causes cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, in newborns it causes sudden infant death syndrome and causes low birth weight (WHO). The most common diseases caused by tobacco involve the lungs and heart. When you light a cancer stick, stop for a second and reflect on the ingredients it contains; that stick contains 4,000 different chemicals made up of different gases and particles made up of water, tar and nicotine. Tar contains hundreds of chemicals, and many of these chemicals are poisonous and known to cause cancer, such as formaldehyde, benzene, and benzpyrene. The main chemical in cigarettes is nicotine; one of the most addictive substances in humans and the addictive chemical that p...... middle of paper ......mier. EBSCO. Network. January 2, 2010. Novick, Andrew. "Nicotine." 2002. 02 January 2010 http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/par16.htmPraetor, Robert N. "Comment: Schairer and Schönigers have forgotten the epidemiology of tobacco and the Nazi quest for racial purity." International Journal of Epidemiology 30(2001): 31-34. Network. December 15, 2009.Rubin, Rita. "FDA: Sweet-flavored cigarettes cannot be sold." USA Today September 22, 2009. Salmon, Matt. “A much needed alternative.” USA Today November 4, 2009Schooler, Caroline, Ellen Feighery, and June A. Flora. “Self-Reported Exposure by Seventh Graders to Cigarette Marketing and Its Relationship to Their Smoking Behavior.” American Journal of Public Health 86.9 (1996): 1216. MasterFILE Premier. EBSCO. Network. 26 January 2010. WHO, “10 facts about tobacco and second-hand smoke”. 2009. 01 January 2010. http://www.who.int/features/factfiles/tobacco/en/