Tobacco

Everywhere around you, you see many people smoking cigarettes. Your friends, your peers, your mentors, TV ads, everyone seems to be doing it. Some smoke to relieve stress, some to look cool, some just because their friends do it, so why not join in? Well, there are lots of detriments to smoking.

Smoking Facts:

There are incredible statistics behind the detriments of smoking.

• Smoking will kill you. Every year tobacoo kills four times as many people as all the other drugs, suicides, murders, accidents, and AIDS put together.
• Every thirteen seconds a person dies from some kind of tobacco-related illness.
• Smoking will turn your teeth and fingers yellow, and give you wrinkles.
• It is proven the smoking hurts your physical endurance and performance.
• Smokers are more than twice as likely to report poor overall health than their nonsmoking peers.

Tobacco Advertising

Tobacco companies realize the powerful influence that advertising has over today's young people, and want to exploit that power in any way they can. Our area on tobacco advertising will keep you safe from the myths that advertisements present. To encourage our senators to support legislation restricting the advertising capabilities of tobacco products, we've set up an area where you can email your senator.

Second-Hand Smoke

Second-hand smoke is a mixture of the smoke that is given off by the burning of tobacco and the smoke exhaled from the lungs of smokers. This smoke is a proven cause of cancer and should be avoided. There are many ways to avoid second-hand smoke. The easiest is to ask people who smoke around you not to, "because you don't like the smell". If you ask in a polite way, they probably will stop.

Quitting Smoking

Many people try to quit smoking by just going "cold turkey", but this can be very hard to do. There are many other easier ways to quit smoking. Check out our Help! I'm addicted! page for tips on how to stop this terrible habit.