Teens Targeted By Nicotine Addiction
Although most people know that smoking is not a healthy habit, they don’t fully understand why. Although most smokers know it’s difficult to quit, they rarely understand why it’s virtually impossible. Although tobacco products are legal, most people don’t understand why. This book will address many of these questions and conflicts of interest.
Almost 90 percent of all smokers started their habit before their 18th birthday. Tobacco companies need to hook smokers before they leave high school.
Did you know that:
- Nicotine is more addictive than heroin.
- Seventy percent of all smokers try to quit smoking every year, but only 10 percent succeed.
- Four million children under the age of 18 are regular smokers in the U.S.
- More than 80,000 young people around the world begin smoking every day.
- The average age of first tobacco use in the United States is 13.
- Eight people die every minute because of tobacco-related diseases.
- Alcohol and tobacco account for 80 percent of the healthcare costs in America.
- In the 1950s, Kent cigarettes and others had filters made of asbestos.
- Most cigarettes contain ammonia-based compounds to enhance the nicotine released from the tobacco leaf. In the world of illicit drugs, this is called free-basing.
- Even though the number of people who are smoking is going down, the per capita cigarette consumption is going up in most countries. This is a result of an emergence of a “core smoker,” or someone who smokes way more than the average amount per day.
- In addition to nicotine, tobacco smoke contains some 4,000 different gases and particles, including “tar,” a conglomeration of many chemicals, which is especially harmful to the lungs. Among the harmful gases in tobacco smoke are nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, and cyanide. More than 40 carcinogens—chemicals capable of causing cancer— have been identified in tobacco smoke, and one of these, benzo(a)pyrene, is being studied as a possible direct link to cancer.
- Governments around the world collect 500 times more money in tobacco taxes each year than they spend on anti-tobacco efforts.
- More than 303 billion cigarettes were sold in the U.S. alone in 2010.
Make informed decisions about tobacco products and make informed decisions and recommendations to your friends and family members.
For more information about tobacco, nicotine addiction, teen smoking and lung cancer, please contact Gary Chandler.
