Wellness & Education

Kick Butts...Kick The Habit

 

Tobacco Facts

  • Each day in the United States, approximately 4,000 adolescents aged 12-17 try their first cigarette.
  • Each year cigarette smoking accounts for approximately 1 of every 5 deaths, or about 438,000 people.
  • Worldwide, approximately 10 million cigarettes are purchased a minute, 15 billion are sold each day, and upwards of 5 trillion are produced and used on an annual basis.
  • Of those who try to quit, about 7% stay off nicotine for more than a year. The vast majority do not make it even a week without cigarettes.
  • Chewing tobacco contains 28 carcinogens
  • People who smoke are up to six times more likely to suffer a heart attack than nonsmokers, and the risk increases with the number of cigarettes smoked.
  • Tobacco use is expected to claim one billion lives this century unless serious anti-smoking efforts are made on a global level.
  • Men who smoke are 23 times more likely to get lung cancer and women are 13 times more likely
  • On average, smokers die 13 to 14 years earlier than non-smokers
  • Smoking costs the United States over $150 billion annually in health care costs.
  • “This young adult market, the 14-to24 age group...represent(s) tomorrow's cigarette business.” - 1974 RJ Reynolds memo.
  • China is home to 300 million smokers who consume approximately 1.7 trillion cigarettes a year, or 3 million cigarettes a minute.
  • It’s estimated that trillions of filters, filled with toxic chemicals from tobacco smoke, make their way into our environment as discarded waste yearly.
  • Studies reveal that smoking popularity is significantly higher among people with 9-11 years of education (35.4%) compared with those with more than 16 years of education (11.6%).

 
 
Think you know your tobacco/smoking facts? Take the quiz!

Tobacco Quiz

  • Questions
    • Cigarette smoking kills more people each year than AIDS, car accidents, homicides, suicides, drug overdoses and fires combined.
    • Smoke inhaled from a cigarette reaches and affects the brain faster than intravenous drugs.
    • Cigarette smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals.
    • Smoking affects sexual and reproductive health only in women smokers.
    • Although smoking damages the inside of your body, it causes no external permanent damage to a smoker's appearance.
    • If you're undergoing any type of surgical procedure, you should quit smoking in advance of surgery.
    • Children who breathe secondhand smoke are more likely to develop asthma.
    • One cigar can contain as much tobacco as an entire pack of cigarettes.
    • The highest smoking ethnic group is white non-Hispanics.
    • Smoking increases your risk for developing osteoporosis.
  • Answers (in the order of the questions)
    • TRUE: Cigarette smoking kills nearly 420,000 people each year. A smoker's life expectancy is reduced by 15 to 25 years, and smoking is the single most preventable cause of death
    • TRUE: Nicotine is a fast-acting, highly addictive drug. Smokers become not only physically addicted to nicotine, but they also link smoking with many social activities, making it much more difficult to quit
    • TRUE: The smoke is the most lethal part of the cigarette and contains not only tar, a known carcinogen, but also cyanide, benzene, formaldehyde, wood alcohol and ammonia. Each time smoker’s inhale, they take these chemicals into their lungs, along with such harmful gasses as carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide
    • FALSE: Heavy smoking decreases blood flow to a man's penis, which contributes to impotence. Male smokers are also at increased risk for infertility, since smoking reduces sperm density and motility (ability to move)
    • TRUE: When you smoke, carbon monoxide enters the bloodstream, which decreases the amount of oxygen your blood can carry to tissues -- including skin. The result is wrinkles and graying of the skin, especially around the mouth
    • TRUE: A smoker's skin does not heal as quickly or as well following surgery as that of a non-smoker. Even stopping smoking a few weeks in advance of the surgery, and during the healing process, can make a difference in how well your skin fares from the procedure
    • TRUE: Children are especially susceptible to secondhand smoke because their lungs are still developing. If a child already has asthma, secondhand smoke will worsen the condition
    • TRUE: Cigar smoke is just as lethal as cigarette smoke. A single, large cigar smoked in one hour can contain as much tobacco as a pack of cigarettes. Even a once-a-day cigar smoker is exposed to the same level of nicotine as that of a pack-a-day cigarette smoker
    • FALSE: According to the American Lung Association, 35% of Native Americans/Alaskan Natives are smokers, compared with 26% of African Americans and 25% of white non-Hispanics. Although smoking has declined among the white non-Hispanic population, tobacco companies have begun to market extensively toward minority groups.
    • TRUE: Smoking increases your risk of developing osteoporosis -- fragile bones -- by reducing the blood supply to your bones and slowing the production of bone-forming cells.

 

Are you a smoker and want to quit?
Here are some helpful tips:

  • Write down why you want to quit (the benefits of quitting): live longer, feel better, for your family, save money, smell better, find a mate more easily, etc. Put it on paper and read it daily.
  • Set a quit date. Decide what day you will extinguish your cigarettes forever. Write it down. Plan for it.
  • Cut back on cigarettes gradually (if you cut back gradually, be sure to set a quit date on which you WILL quit).
  • Quit smoking "cold turkey."
  • Find another smoker who is trying to quit, and help each other with positive words and by lending an ear when quitting becomes difficult.
  • Learn what triggers your desire for a cigarette, such as stress, the end of a meal, arrival at work, entering a bar, etc. Avoid these triggers or if that's impossible, plan alternative ways to deal with the triggers.
  • Remove cigarettes and other tobacco products from your home, car, and work.

 

 

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