OBJECTIVES Estimating disease burden for lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke in the adult Colombian population during 2007, and the smoking-attributable fraction of such burden. METHODS A systematic review was done to identify the incidence, prevalence and mortality of the studied diseases in Colombia. This was complemented with other sources of information, such as the Colombian statistical administrative department (DANE) and International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) databases. DisMod-II software was used to verify and integrate the obtained estimators. These estimators were used to calculate the number of years of life lost (YLL). Similar review procedures were used to estimate smoking prevalence by gender and age group. A set of relative risks for the four diseases according to smoking status and age group was used to estimate the smoking-attributable burden. Relative risks were taken from the BENESCO (Benefits of Smoking Cessation on Outcomes) model. RESULTS Total burden for lung cancer in 2007 was estimated in 34,593 YLL, 127,982 YLL for COPD, 390,260 YLL for CHD and 161,715 YLL for stroke. The four diseases cause 714,550 YLL each year, taking the smoker and non-smoker populations as a whole. Considering that about 20% of the adult Colombians smoke, after 20 years this group would have accumulated 661,825 YLL directly attributable to smoking; these YLL could have been avoided in a hypothetical situation in which smoking habit is completely eliminated. CONCLUSIONS The smoking-attributable burden represents only a fraction of the total burden for these diseases; nevertheless, such percentage is important because it is at least partially preventable. With just 25% of smokers making an attempt to quit using the best available therapy in Colombia (varenicline efficacy after one year: 22.4%), then more than 4,600 deaths and 27,000 YLLs could be avoided by the end of the 20 years' horizon.