Partnerships
One Millionth Call to 1-800-QUIT-NOW
Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the United States. So when one million calls were placed to 1-800-QUIT-NOW there was reason to celebrate. The national, toll-free number for free help to quit tobacco use was developed by the National Network of Tobacco Cessation Quitlines, a dynamic collaboration among states, CDC, the National Cancer Institute, and the North American Quitline Consortium.
An estimated 43 million American adults currently smoke cigarettes, and cigarette smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke causes approximately 443,000 deaths annually. For every person who dies from tobacco use, another 20 suffer with at least one serious tobacco-related illness. This addiction costs the nation more than $96 billion per year in direct medical expenses as well as more than $97 billion in lost productivity annually.
CDC’s Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs, 2007 describes an integrated programmatic structure for implementing interventions that are proven to be effective. The report also provides guidance to states regarding the recommended levels of investment in tobacco control to reduce the burden of tobacco use on the nation. Comprehensive tobacco control programs have been shown to reduce smoking rates, tobacco-related deaths, and disease when they are sustained and accountable. By collaborating with our many partners, CDC is expanding its vision of promoting Healthy People in a Healthy World.
For more information on comprehensive tobacco control programs visit
Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs (PDF 1.1MB).
Birth Defects Prevention Study
In 2008, CDC’s National Birth Defects Prevention Study provided further evidence that smoking and diabetes in women are harmful to unborn babies by contributing to major, structural birth defects.
Women who have diabetes before they become pregnant are three to four times more likely to have a child with one or even multiple birth defects than a mother who is not diabetic. Also, women who smoke early in their pregnancy are more likely to give birth to infants with congenital heart defects and orofacial clefts. These findings have significant public health implications because nearly three percent of all infants born in the United States have a major birth defect, and nearly one percent have a congenital heart defect.
CDC’s National Birth Defects Prevention Study is the largest population-based study on the causes of birth defects ever undertaken in the United States.
Related Links
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