Which is more harmful? (user search)

Smoking is more harmful from the perspective of both the individual and society, for different reasons. From the individual's perspective, you are much more likely to become addicted to smoking. From society's perspective, more years of life in the aggregate are lost to smoking than alcohol. Both are susceptible to causing harm to others (second-hand smoke and impaired judgment) although the latter can be argued as quantitatively worse because it can be sudden and unavoidable. For these reasons, smoking is generally regulated more strictly than alcohol (with the exception of driving), and a smaller proportion of the population smokes.

It is interesting to note that there is a controversy over the leading preventable cause of death in the U.S. In 2004, the CDC reported that 400,000 excess deaths were caused by poor diet and lifestyle in 2000, up from 300,000 in 1990. In that same year the number of excess deaths caused by smoking was about 435,000. The CDC later revised their numbers to 365,000 by poor diet and lifestyle. However, in recent years the rate of smoking has been declining obesity rates have been rising, so it is possible that the two measures crossed one another at one point or will soon. The CDC continues to maintain that smoking is the leading preventable cause of death, using data from 1997-2001.

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