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Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States. It kills more than 400,000 Americans each year--more people than AIDS, car accidents, alcohol, homicides, illegal drugs, suicides, and fires COMBINED!
4.5 million kids age 12-17 are currently smokers (7)
Smoking among high school seniors is at a 19-year high =>36.9% (3)
Air polluted by tobacco smoke or Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS) is a real and substantial public health threat to almost half of the world's children, particularly at home. Studies have shown that children whose parents smoke are at increased risk for respiratory illness, middle ear disease, SIDS, cancer, and cardiovascular disease. (8)
The use of tabacco products results in the premature deaths of 1 of every 3 of your youth who begin smoking every day. (1)
According to the 1995 Household Survery of Drug Abuse, youths age 12-17 who smoked were about eight times as likely to use illicit drugs and 11 times more likely to drink heavily as nonsmoking youth. (2)
Based on a price of $2.00 per pack and an average of 2 packs per day, a smoker will spend $14,640 on cigarettes over 10 years. (9)
A child with a healthy self -esteem is less likely to smoke or abuse drugs and other substances. Here are a few tips to help strengthen your child:
- Let your child know they are important to you.
- Be respectful.
- Show an interest in your child's schoolwork, activities, and friends.
- Spend time with your child.
- Be honest.
- Celebrate successes.
- Be clear about substance abuse. Talk about addiction.
- Examine your own use of substances and evaluate what kind of model you are to your children.
What happens to your body when you start to smoke?
SMOKING:
- stains teeth.
- causes bad breath and hacking cough.
- leaves a strong tobacco odor on clothes.
- decreases level of physical stamina.
- exposes your body to more than 40,000 toxic chemicals, 50 cancer causing substances, and the highly toxic gas carbon monoxide.
THE LONG TERM EFFECTS:
- Smokers are ten times more likely to die from lung cancer than nonsmokers.
- Cigarettes double the risk of heart disease.
- Cigarettes are the most common cause of lung diseases like chronic bronchities and emphysema.
- Smokers who start before age 15 have cancer rates 19 times higher than nonsmokers.
- Chemicals from cigarette smoke may lead to reproductive problems including impotence, miscarriages, and infertility.
- Adults who start smoking as children are almost four times more likely to be regular users of an illicit drug and three times more likely to use cocaine regularly than adults who did not smoke as children. (5)
References
1. Executive Summary, The Regulations Restricting the Sale and Distribution of Cigarettes and Smokeless Tobacco to Protect Children and Adolescents, FOOD and Drug Administration, Aug. 23, 1996.
2. Preliminary Estimates from the 1995 National Household Survery of Drug Abuse, US Department of Health and Human Services, August 1996, p.23.
3. The Monitoring the Future Study, University of Michigan, 1997.
4. Lynch, Barbara S., and Richard J. Bonnie, eds. Growing Up Tobacco Free: Preventing Nicotine Addiction in Children and Youths, Institute of Medicine, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 1994.
5. Cigarettes, Alchohl, Marijuana: Gateways to Illicit Drug Use, Center of Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, October 1994.
6. Adapted from Caring for Your School Age Child: Age 5-12, American Academy of Pediatrics, Bantam Books; 1995.
7. "National Household Survery on Drug Abuse: Population Estimates 1997." Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
8. International Consultation on Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS) and Child Health, 11-14 January 1999, Geneva, Switzerland.
9. Institute of Medicine, "Growing Up Tobacco Free", 1994.
[Keywords: child, tobacco]
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