Tobacco use kills 443,000 Americans each year.

Source: http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/healt...

For perspective: http://www.meh.ro/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/meh.ro5415.jpg

That's "1 of every 5 deaths in US due to smoking," I've submitted it now:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1856015

Now how is then smoking less harmful than using some other substance? Or is the evaluation skewed somehow?

I'm pretty sure that data is about ten years old, but otherwise it's correct. Overall drug use kills about 1 in 3 Americans.

Tobacco at least only kills the person stupid enough to use it. Drunk driving kills thousands of innocent people.

Stairs kill 12 thousand people per year in the US. That's about 4x the lives lost from 911 -- every single year.

What's your source?

How about: http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/TSF2004.PDF

"Specifically, alcohol-related fatalities declined significantly in 2004, to 16,694, the second consecutive year in which alcohol-related fatalities declined."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drunk_driving_in_the_United_Sta... says "In the United States the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that 17,941 people died in 2006 in "alcohol-related" collisions..."