Tobacco & Teens

Teens and Tobacco: The Facts

Some facts about teens and tobacco

• Nine out of 10 regular smokers began using tobacco products before age 18.

• The average teen smoker begins at age 13.

• About 2/3 of teen smokers say they want to quit smoking.

• Every day, 3,000 kids become addicted to tobacco products.

• Almost 1,000 of them will die prematurely from tobacco- related disease.

• Eighty-five percent of underage smokers purchase the three most heavily advertised Brands: Marlboro, Newport, or Camel.

• After the Joe Camel cartoon campaign was introduced, Camel's market share among underage smokers jumped from 0.5% to 32.8%.

• Fifty percent of kids 12 to 17 who smoke own at least one promotional item with a tobacco logo.

Figures & Facts

Each year more than 400,000 Americans die from a tobacco-related illness, the number one preventable cause of death in the United States. More lives are lost to tobacco than those caused by fires, alcohol, suicides, car accidents, AIDS, illegal drugs, and homicides, combined. Most of these deaths occur in adulthood, but the damage begin on the onset of smoking which in about 90 percent of the cases, begins at or before the age of 18.

". . . [F]rom a public-health standpoint, keeping kids away from cigarettes is thesingle most effective way to fight the nation's leading preventable cause of death."

-- "Hooked on Tobacco: The Teen Epidemic," Consumer Reports, March 1995.

• Close to 1,000 of the 3,000 youths who begin smoking every day will prematurely die of a tobacco-related disease.

• An infant's risk of dying from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) increases 5 times if he or she is exposed to secondhand smoke in the room. Second hand smoke also increases the risk of lung cancer and asthma.

• Smoking in childhood or adolescence increases the risk of developing cardiac disease – the number one cause of death in the United States.

• Young adult smokers are 1.43 times more likely to have a stroke than their nonsmoking peers.

• Smoking is linked to not only lung cancer, but also other respiratory problems like coughing, wheezing, and shortness of breath.

• Children and adolescents who use tobacco have smaller lungs than their peers, and therefore tend to be less physically fit than their peers.

• Adolescents' use of smokeless tobacco increases their risk of oral cancer and nicotine addiction.

Why would anyone want to smoke?

Kids are extremely well informed about the hazards of tobacco. Nevertheless, the onset of smoking has increased by one third in the last three years. This drastic rise in the numbers of children who smoke occurred despite enormous expenditure of time, energy and money spent on tobacco education programs. How could this be so?

Parents, teachers and physicians have consciously tried to: appeal to the logic of small children by telling them that smoking is harmfulhelp children understand that they need not succumb to peer pressure

But their efforts have backfired because the tobacco companies know: the act of lighting-up for the first time is stimulated by desire, not thoughts or information that people make choices on the emotional level where desires are formed that information is simply used to justify what desires have already chosen

And using the grim psychology of emotional control, the tobacco companies have: projected the cartoon icon Joe Camel upon unsuspecting children as an unofficial role model for the emerging adolescent providng glamorous images that promise acceptance and acceptability; entered the world of teenage fashion by instigating clothing gift and premium programs for heavy smokers; used their emotions by associating tobacco products with patriotic symbols, the great outdoors, weight control, sports, freedom, adventure, independence and sexual conquest channeled peer pressure into avenues profitable to themselves

Teens are being used and abused!

Why tobacco companies target children

they need 4,000 new smokers every day to replace the ones who have quit or died, or the company goes out of business. they think kids are too inexperienced to grasp the reality of addiction, and that children will try smoking to see what it's like...addiction does the rest

Within the emotions of the child:

a feeling of lack arises, as the child doesn't feel as happy as the folks in the ads seem to be a sense of inadequacy ensues, the child convinced that without a cigarette in her hand or a can of snuff in her jeans, she is incomplete curiosity is kindled, and desire overrides all reason

Smoke Free Teens Fact Sheet

Youth smoking is as big a problem as it ever was. Parents and teachers are often at a loss as to how to deal with the fact that their children may already smoke or the chance that they may become hooked on cigarettes in the future. This page is therefore dedicated to providing as much information about the subject as is possible, and to answering potential questions on smoking among youth and teens.

Every day 3,000 children become regular smokers as a result of nicotine addiction, and almost one-third of them prematurely lose their lives to a smoking-related disease. Tobacco use among teens is a public health issue that every candidate for public office should address.

Marlboro Lights, Newports, Camels. There are so many brands and kinds of cigarettes to choose from. Smoking is definitely a concern for the people in Congress and state legislatures.

Smoking is another one of our teen trends. At least one in four high school girls have started smoking in the last five years. The President and congress just passed a bill requiring identification for buying cigarettes if you are under 26 years old. This is definitely a step in the right direction, but I think we need to do much more about our teen smoking problem.

Everyone knows the risks and how they effect our health. Teens are tired of being lectured about smoking. If they want to smoke, they are going to smoke because they are way too easy to get. Teens can get cigarettes at gas stations & from their parents.

I am a teen myself and I think that the problem starts with the parents and cigarette Manufacturers. The parents have the cigarettes in the house so that teen can get their hands on them. The cigarette companies make cigarettes look way too appealing. Their target audience is ages 16-25, because those people have not been hooked by this drug.

http://www.wholetruth.com State of Florida's tobacco site (funded by penalties to tobacco companies)

http://www.tobacco.org/Misc/kids_ad_day.html Story of tobacco & advertisements

http://www.tobacco.org/Misc/kids_ad_day.html FDA facts about teens and tobacco

http://www.smokefreekids.com/kidsfact.htm Links to fact sheets on children and tobacco

http://world.std.com/~batteryb/ A collection of interesting facts and pictures relating to tobacco

http://ash.org/buyinfluence.html "Industry Trying to Buy Influence"

Return to Drug Free Home Page by Clicking Here

Click here to see Facts about Marijuana
Click here to see Facts and Links on Caffeine
Click here to see Facts and Links on Alcohol
Click here to see Facts on Teenage Sex
Click here for Drugs and the Law (Florida)
Click here for information on Teenage Emotions

Last Updated 08/13/06