How tobacco is used?

Cigarettes: Also known as: “smokes, ” “cigs, ” or “butts”

Smokeless tobacco: Also known as: “chew, ” “dip, ” “spit tobacco, ” “snus, ” or “snuff”

Hookah: Also known as: "waterpipe, " “narghile, ” “shisha, ” “hubble-bubble, ” or “goza”

Tobacco is a leafy plant grown around the world, including in parts of the United States. There are many chemicals found in tobacco or created by burning it (as in cigarettes), but nicotine is the ingredient that can lead to addiction. Other chemicals produced by smoking, such as tar, carbon monoxide, acetaldehyde, and nitrosamines, also can cause harm to the body. For example, tar causes lung cancer and other serious diseases that affect breathing. Carbon monoxide causes heart problems, which is one reason why people who smoke are at high risk for heart disease.

Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of disease, disability, and death in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), cigarettes cause more than 480, 000 premature deaths in the United States each year—from smoking or exposure to secondhand smoke—about 1 in every 5 U.S. deaths, or 1, 300 deaths every day.1 An additional 16 million people suffer with a serious illness caused by smoking. Thus, for every 1 person who dies from smoking, 30 more suffer from at least 1 serious tobacco-related illness.2

Tobacco and nicotine products come in many forms. People either smoke, chew, or sniff them, or inhale their vapors.