• 4,800 students will try tobacco today
• 2,500 will become regular users
• 400,000 people will die each year from tobacco use
• 40,000 will die from other peoples use (secondhand smoke & pregnancy smoking)
• 4.5 million student’s currently use tobacco

Street Names: smoking sticks, poppers, grits, chew, or tabs. Methods: Smoked or chewed. Effects: Cigarette smoking by young people leads to immediate and serious health problems including respiratory and non-respiratory effects, addiction to nicotine, and the associated risk of other drug use. Smoking at an early age increases the risk of lung cancer. For most smoking-related cancers, the risk rises as the individual continues to smoke. Cigarette smoking causes heart disease, stroke, chronic lung disease, and cancers of the lung, mouth, pharynx, esophagus, and bladder. Use of smokeless tobacco causes cancers of the mouth, pharynx and esophagus; gum recession; and an increased risk for heart disease and stroke.The American Lung Association estimates that every minute 4,800 teens will take their first drag of a cigarette. Of those 4,800-about 2,000 will go on to be a chain smoker. Nicotine is considered the number one entrance drug into other substance abuse problems. As we continue to learn about the early behaviors associated with drug abuse the more we will learn what to look for (example kid smoking cigarette at 13, progresses to smoking marijuana at 15, progresses to heroin or meth at 17).

There are more than 4,000 ingredients in a cigarette other than tobacco. In fact, the same toxins and chemicals found in tobacco products can also be found in the air around toxic waste dumps.  Common additives include yeast, wine, caffeine, beeswax and chocolate.

Some of the ingredients in cigarettes:

• Acetone: nail polish remover
• Ammonia: household cleaner
• Angelica root extract: known to cause cancer in animals
• Arsenic: used in rat poisons
• Benzene: used in making dyes, synthetic rubber
• Butane: gas; used in lighter fluid
• Carbon monoxide: poisonous gas
• Cadmium: used in batteries
• Cyanide: deadly poison
 DDT: a banned insecticide
• Ethyl Furoate: causes liver damage in animals
• Formaldehiyde: used to preserve dead specimens
• Hydrazine: rocket fuel
• Hydrogen Cyanide: rat poison
• Lead: poisonous in high doses
• Methoprene: insecticide
• Megastigmatrienone: chemical naturally found in grapefruit juice
• Maltitol: sweetener for diabetics
• Methyl isocyanate: it’s accidental release killed 2000 people in Bhopal, India in 1984
• Napthalene: ingredient in mothballs
• Nicotine: a poison used to kill cockroaches
• Polonium: cancer-causing radioactive element

While some of these ingredients and chemicals are safe in foods, they were toxic and some formed into carcinogens – a cancer-causing substance – when heated or burned.

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