Smoking Lowers U.S. Life Expectancy, Study Says

The effects of smoking on the nation's health is much more wide-ranging than just the number of people who die from it every year.

In a study comparing life expectancy worldwide, the U.S. tends to rank in the lower part of the list among the developed countries. While that's sometimes believed to be due to the U.S. healthcare system, a University of Pennsylvania demographer said that's not true. He told The New York Times that it's mostly because of the high rates of heart disease and cancer, both diseases you get from smoking.

The researchers said "that if deaths due to smoking were excluded, the United States would rise to the top half of the longevity rankings for developed countries," The Times said.