The gloves are off . . . SMOKING CAN SERIOUSLY DAMAGE YOUR HEALTH . . . . SMOKING CAN SERIOUSLY DAMAGE YOUR WEALTH . . . . SMOKING KILLS

• Smoking tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death in the USA
• More than 440,000 people die every year from diseases related to smoking tobacco (even secondhand smoke)
• Healthcare  and lost productivity for tobacco related diseases tops more than $193 billion every year
• Quitting smoking trends have done well over the last decade or so for both adult and youth smokers, but there are signs to say that the trend is slowing down and could even be reversed
• According to a CDC’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention study in 2004, there are more than 4,800 chemicals in cigarette smoke, and 69 of them are known to cause cancer
• 39 per cent of all smoking deaths are women

Scary Teen Tobacco Statistics

Be afraid, be very afraid . . .

• An estimated 3,000 children smoke their first cigarette every single day – that’s a frightening 3,000 potential addicts daily, told you it was scary stuff
• Out of the those 3,000 children, almost 1,000 of them will go on to die as a direct result of smoking cigarettes
• 20% of all American teenagers are smokers
• Even though American teenagers know the risks involved with smoking, still around 6 million American teenagers smoke . . . as if that wasn’t bad enough . . .
• Teenagers which smoke are also more likely to drink alcohol, 3 times more likely to be exact
• Teenagers which smoke tobacco are eight times more likely to try smoking marijuana
• Teenagers which smoke are 22 times more likely to try using cocaine . . . where will it all end?
• More than 90% of adult smokers started to smoke when they were in their teens
• A teenager is 13 times more likely to smoke if their best friend smokes, than if their best friends don’t smoke
• Teenagers whose parents smoke are twice as likely to start smoking as those whose parents do not smoke . . . think about it next time you light up
• Teenagers who start smoking at the age of 13 will find quitting more difficult and suffer more health problems (as well as potentially dying sooner) than a person who starts smoking in their 20’s.

Women’s Tobacco Statistics

• Women who smoke will often go through the menopause earlier than women who do not smoke
• Pregnant women pass on harmful chemicals to their unborn babies through the placenta
• Smoking more than half a pack of cigarettes per day can cause infertility and irregular menstrual cycles
• More than 11% of pregnant women in 2002 smoke during their pregnancy
• Smoking while pregnant increases the risk of miscarriage, premature labor and even stillbirth
• Babies born to mothers who smoked during pregnancy are 7 ounces lighter than those born to mothers who do not smoke, on average
• Smoking while pregnant puts the baby more at risk of having birth defects, as well as suffering from bronchitis, asthma and other smoking related diseases
• Nursing mothers who smoke pass on the nicotine to their child through breast milk

‘I have often wished that every individual afflicted with this artificial passion could force it upon himself to try but for three months the experiment which I made, sure that it would turn every acre of tobacco land into a wheat field, and add five years to the average of human life’. – John Quincy Adams 1845 – the sixth president of the US.