"Today and every day this year, 3,000 young people will begin to smoke; 1,000 of them ultimately will die of cancer, emphysema, heart disease and other diseases caused by smoking. That's more than a million vulnerable young people a year being hooked on nicotine that ultimately could kill them."
~ President Bill Clinton, 1996 War on Tobacco Speech
Nicotine is a powerful drug that is as addictive as cocaine or heroin. Cigarette smoke contains more than 4,000 chemicals, including cyanide, benzene, formaldhehyde, methanol, acetylene, and ammonia...
So dangerous for the smoker... and the people around the smoker, especially the vulnerable lungs of young children. Children of parents who smoke have more colds, flu, asthma, and ear infections.
Half of all smokers die prematurely because of their addiction, their lives reduced by about 14 years.
In 2000, smoking caused about 4.8 million deaths worldwide; over 75 percent of those deaths were among men. Each year, more than 400,000 Americans die from cigarette smoking. One in every five deaths in the United States is smoking-related.
Studies show that smokers lose seven minutes of their life for every cigarette they smoke. Studies also show that over 80% of the people who smoke, do so before their 18th birthday.
And the great news: 70% of teenagers today do not smoke.
Education is power. Celebrate clean air and lungs. Take time to learn about the dangers of tobacco and share them with the people you love.
What do you call a company that kills
465,000 of its best customers a year?
A tobacco company.