BASIC FACTS ABOUT TOBACCO

Start With the Facts

History of Tobacco in the U.S.

Stress Tips and Delay Tactics

Other Resources on Tobacco and Quitting Smoking

World No Tobacco Day

 

Start With The Facts

I’m 50 years old and I’m tired of being treated like an outcast, my clothes and hair stink, my fingers are stained yellow and I don’t have enough air in my lungs to climb two flights of stairs. Worse yet, while my friends are enjoying conversation and being together, I’m looking for some corner to sneak a cigarette.  Even my grandson doesn’t like being around me when I smoke.   Enough already!  Help! I need to stop smoking!

 

 

Does this sound familiar? Rita has tried everything: cold turkey; nicotine gum and patches; guilt trips but nothing seems to work, not even being the in hospital for smoke-related illnesses. Little did she know that when she lit up that first cigarette at sixteen, her addictive personality would keep her smoking for the next 34 years?

There is good news however. By joining a support group at her job and learning the facts and tips for changing habits, Rita has been able to cut down from two packs of cigarettes a day to a little less than one. Her mentor in the support group is a big help giving her tips to use every day. And her family and friends provide support too. If you're having a problem with smoking, read on to get the facts and then get help to quit smoking.

 

 

Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of premature death in the United States. In other words people are dying when they don't have to. Worldwide, there are almost 10,000 deaths A DY from tobacco-related illnesses. In the U. S. alone 400,000 people die each year from illnesses aggravated by tobacco: heart disease, cancer, chronic pulmonary disease and stroke. Not all of these smokers are adults. Recent studies show a downward trend in the number of young people that smoke. That's great news! But, there are about 3,000 or more new smokers under age 19 that start smoking each day, not to mention the 15.5 million kids exposed to second hand smoke each day.

What is Tobacco?

• Tobacco is a plant that comes in two varieties, nicotiana tabacum and nicotiana rustica. Nicotiana rustica is used the most and provides the source of all the tobacco produced in the U.S.
• Leaves from the tobacco plant are dried and shredded and then rolled into cigarettes or cigars, or packaged as pipe or chewing tobacco or a snuff. It is the only organic source of nicotine - the addicting chemical.
• Cigarette smoke contains over 3,000 chemicals including: Acetone (nail polish remover), Hydrogen cyanide (rat poison); Nicotine (used to kill cockroaches); Hydrazine (rocket fuel) and Formaldehyde (embalming fluid). These are not just works used to scare you (though you should be scared) but chemicals that are found in cigarettes after scientific testing.

 

How Is Tobacco Taken:

Most smokers use cigarettes. The nicotine-heavy smoke is inhaled into the lungs where it produces a pleasurable sensation not unlike a high.   Side effects of use: Stress Rapid heart beat Increased blood pressure Decrease in oxygen flow to body tissue

Some people smoke tobacco in cigars and pipes. Most do not inhale because the nicotine is strong enough to be absorbed through the mouth.   Side effects of use can result in: Cancers of the mouth, throat, larynx, esophagus and stomach

Tobacco Use has been implicated in many illnesses. A few are: Fatal heart failure, stroke, heart attacks, cardiovascular disease. Various cancers of the stomach, pancreas, uterus, cervix, kidney, bladder and some forms of leukemia. Sinusitis, bronchitis, pneumonia, emphysema and reproductive complications such as miscarriage, premature birth, birth defects and especially low-birth weight babies.

 

Perhaps the most tragic part of smoking is PASSIVE SMOKING –
especially when it involves children.

Passive smoking is the process that causes non-smokers to inhale smoke involuntarily. Some of the smoke they inhale is knows as “sidestream smoke” – the smoke that smolders off the end of a cigarette, cigar or pipe. In some adults, sidestream smoke can cause respiratory distress and allergic reactions as well as lung cancer. Other tests implicate passive smoking as causing more severe episodes of asthma and respiratory illnesses among children .

 

What Can You Do?

Smokers: Quit while you can. The longer you smoke, the harder it is to quit.  Don’t try and do it alone.  Join a group like Nicotine Anonymous or Quitnet. Most health insurance companies now have support systems to help smokers quit. While you’re quitting, don’t smoke around kids.  Help kids keep their lungs healthy.  Respect the rights of non-smokers.  Keep a smoke-free household around kids.

Non Smokers:  Avoid smoke filled rooms whenever possible.  If it is not possible to avoid the smoker, remove yourself.  Respect the smoker’s rights as well. Not everyone can stop by themselves. Help educate your smoking friends to Tobacco’s dangers and give them support in quitting.

Kids:  If you don’t smoke – don’t start.  Join the thousands of kids that are choosing healthy life styles instead of addiction.

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History:

Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of premature death in the United States. It is estimated that directly or indirectly, tobacco causes more than 400,000 deaths in the U.S. annually, a figure that represents nearly 20 percent of all U.S. deaths. These deaths have been attributed to a number of conditions defined as tobacco-related, including heart disease (115,000 deaths), cancer (136,000), chronic pulmonary disease (60,000), and stroke (27,000). According to a study published by the British medical journal Lancet, the rate of tobacco-related mortality throughout the entire developed world also averages about 20 percent of all deaths.

There are approximately 47 million smokers in the U.S.  About 23 percent of adults smoke, and about 30 percent of adolescents. It is widely acknowledged that people who haven’t used tobacco by age 21 are likely to remain non-smokers. So it would seem reasonable for much tobacco advertising to target potential adolescent users, although tobacco companies deny this. What is undeniable, however, are statistics showing that the average age of first tobacco use in the United States is 13.

What is Tobacco?

The first European settlers in North America were introduced to tobacco smoking by Native Americans. By the early 16th century, the settlers were exporting tobacco to Europe, where it was believed to have curative powers. By the end of the 19th century, tobacco use was common in North America, but the quantity of tobacco that each individual used was still relatively small. A number of factors contributed to a 20th-century surge in tobacco use. Invention of the safety match made it safe and easy to light up, and invention of the cigarette-manufacturing machine made it possible to produce pre-rolled cigarettes in great quantities. The advent of mass-circulation newspapers and magazines made widespread advertising of cigarettes possible. Initially, men were the sole targets of the ads— smoking by women was considered impolite—and cigarettes were portrayed as a product for the rugged and powerful. With the rise of the Women’s Suffrage movement, however, the tobacco companies began to fashion campaigns that encouraged women to smoke.

Cigarette use continued to grow at a rapid pace and peaked at over 40 percent of the nation’s adolescent-and-older population by the mid-1960’s. About this time, several epidemiological studies were released, including the U.S. Surgeon General’s influential 1964 report, pointing to a connection between smoking and such diseases as cancer and respiratory illness. As these and subsequent studies were publicized, fear of long-term illnesses caused many smokers to quit and many potential users never to begin. At present, about 25 percent of Americans smoke, but the decline in use has now leveled off, and there are some indications that cigarette use may be increasing. Since the number of Americans who die each year from tobacco-related illnesses is still appallingly high and adolescent use is on the rise, there are now renewed efforts to prevent smoking.

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Stress Tips and Delay Tactics

 

 

 

 

Here are some tips from the Phoenix House Health Education Department (our affiliate) that you can use to take stress breaks and remind yourself to delay before taking that next puff. Good luck and keep trying to stop one puff at a time.

      

   

         

 

 

 

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Other Resources on

Tobacco and Quitting Smoking

 

To Smoke or Not to Smoke

 

http://www.tobaccofacts.org/index.html British Columbia Ministry of Health

www.cancer.org - American Cancer Society

www.americanheart.org - American Heart Association

www.lungusa.org - American Lung Association

www.tobaccofreekids.org Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids

http://www.idecide4me.com/ I Decide from the Illinois Department of Health

http://www.notobacco.org/ Foundation for a Smoke Free America

http://www.smokefree.gov/index.html Smoke Free Soccer

http://www.tarwars.org/  American Academy of Pediatricians

http://www.quitnet.org/qn_main.jtml Quitnet

http://nicotine-anonymous.org/ Nicotine Anonymous

http://www.jointogether.org/sa/ Join Together

 

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World No Tobacco Day, May 31 , is sponsored by a group of non-profit and corporate sponsors under The Coalition for World No Tobacco Day, co-chaired by David A. Kessler, MD, Former Commissioner of the United States Food and Drug Administration and John Seffrin, Ph.D., chief executive officer of the American Cancer Society. The Coalition is supporting initiatives including a public service campaign and a web site to encourage individuals to quit tobacco use in recognition of the event to help fight the global tobacco epidemic.

 

For more information on the Coalition please visit their web site:  www.wntd.com

 

 

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