Just Eliminate the Lies - Smoking Stinks
March 08, 2007
Facts.
- Secondhand smoke kills 53,000 nonsmokers in the U.S. each year.
- For every eight smokers the tobacco industry kills, it takes one nonsmoker with them.
- Secondhand smoke is responsible for 150,000 lower respiratory tract infections in children under 18 months of age 2.
- 26,000 children develop asthma annually as a result of being exposed to secondhand smoke.
- Being in a smoky bar for only two hours is the same as smoking four cigarettes.
- Cigarette smoke contains 63 chemical compounds known to cause cancer.
- 90% of life-long smokers started before they were 18.
- 2,000 teens start smoking every day.
- Each year, nearly 35 million smokers make a serious attempt to quit. Only about 7% are successful.
- Just 30 minutes of exposure to secondhand smoke can reduce the ability of the heart to pump blood.
- To market its deadly product, the tobacco industry spends about $414,000 a day in Iowa.
- Tobacco companies make $1.8 billion from under age sales.
Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, www.tobaccofreekids.org
National Cancer Institute; www.cancer.gov
American cancer society; www.cancer.org
Death Toll From Second Hand Smoke This year:
9664
and counting.
53,000 Americans die each year. That's one every ten minutes!
Almost no smoker begins as an adult. Statistics show that about nine out of 10 tobacco users start before they're 18 years old. Some teens who smoke say they start because they think it helps them look older (it does - if yellow teeth and wrinkles are the look you want). Others smoke because they think it helps them relax (it doesn't - the heart actually beats faster while a person's smoking). Some light up as a way to feel rebellious or to set themselves apart (which works if you want your friends to hang out someplace else while you're puffing away). Some start because their friends smoke - or just because it gives them something to do.
Some people, especially girls, start smoking because they think it may help keep their weight down. The illnesses that smoking can cause, like lung diseases or cancer, do cause weight loss - but that's not a very good way for people to fit into their clothes!
Another reason people start smoking is because their family members do. Most adults who started smoking in their teens never expected to become addicted. That's why people say it's just so much easier to not start smoking at all.
The cigarette ads from when your parents were young convinced many of them that the habit was glamorous, powerful, or exciting - even though it's essentially a turnoff: smelly, expensive, and unhealthy. Cigarette ads from the 1940s even showed doctors recommending cigarettes as a way to relax!
Cigarette ads still show smokers as attractive and hip, sophisticated and elegant, or rebellious and cool. The good news is that these ads aren't as visible and are less effective today than they used to be: Just as doctors are more savvy about smoking today than they were a generation ago, teens are more aware of how manipulative advertising can be. The government has also passed laws limiting where and how tobacco companies are allowed to advertise to help prevent young kids from getting hooked on smoking.
