• Learn The Facts •

Everyone knows that smoking is bad, so why do it? Take a look at some of the facts below to learn a little more about this dirty habit.

– Smoking is an addiction. Tobacco smoke contains nicotine, a drug that is
addictive and can make it very hard, but not impossible, to quit.

– Kids are still picking up smoking at the alarming rate of 3,000 a day in the
U.S., and 80,000 to 100,000 a day worldwide.

– Tobacco use is expected to claim one billion lives this century unless serious
anti-smoking efforts are made on a global level.

– Half of all long-term smokers will die a tobacco-related death.

– Cigarettes contain arsenic, formaldehyde, lead, hydrogen cyanide, nitrogen
oxide, carbon monoxide, ammonia and 43 known carcinogens.

– The U.S. states with the highest percentage of smokers are Kentucky (28.7%),
Indiana (27.3%), and Tennessee (26.8%), while the states with the fewest are
Utah (11.5%), California ( 15.2%), and Connecticut (16.5%).

– If both parents smoke, a teenager is more than twice as likely to smoke than a
young person whose parents are both nonsmokers. In households where only one
parent smokes, young people are also more likely to start smoking.

– Pregnant women who smoke are more likely to deliver babies whose weights are too
low for the babies’ good health. If all women quit smoking during pregnancy,
about 4,000 new babies would not die each year.