Why do we start…

Some people like to smoke because their friends do. This is called peer pressure. Many times people think it will be fun and cool!! Most people start smoking by the age of 18. There are about 46 million adults that smoke in the United States. Each year 390,000 Americans die from the effects of smoking. Smoking shortens your life by 15 years. Some materials we read, said smoking is declining. That was encouraging as we hope educating us is helping.

A poisonous additive drug called nicotine is in tobacco. There are about 43 cancer causing chemicals in cigarettes. One of these is carbon monoxide, that is the same chemical that comes out of our car exhaust.

Smoking is BAD for our health. Your lungs get full of smoke and so does the air. Your breath, clothes, hair, home and cars smell of smoke. Your teeth and fingers may be stained a yellow color. That is disgusting!!!!! Cancer of lungs, throat and pancreas are common. Heart disease and ulcers also occur.

There were facts on the Internet relating to second-hand/side-stream smoke. If you get second-hand smoke, you have a greater chance of getting respiratory problems and cancer. You breathe the smoky air and it gets into our lungs. Our clothes and our hair also may become smoky smelling. This second-hand smoke can cause as much problem to a bystander as smoking can do to a smoker.

There are laws that tell smokers where they can smoke. In our survey, we found many places like malls, schools, and business places that have nonsmoking. There are nonsmoking and smoking areas in many restaurants, bars, motels, and hotels.

Why do people smoke when it is so bad for them? That is a question that everybody will most likely ask themselves. There is no definite answer, but there are some leads. People smoke because of the way cigarettes are advertised and where they are shown. People also smoke because they believe smoking will make them act, look, and/or feel different.

Who smokes? High school graduates, blue collar workers, and men in low income brackets who are more likely to smoke than men in higher income brackets, white collar workers and people with college education. Women who work are more likely to smoke than housewives, or women in households with a low family income. In addition, children from households where the parents and siblings smoke may learn the habit more frequently than children in smoke free homes.

Advertising techniques are one of the main reasons that people begin to smoke. Cigarette companies claim not to target young kids, but that is very untrue. Have you ever seen a billboard with normal, middle aged person smoking? Do they show people with stained teeth, wrinkled faces, and a large cloud of smoke hovering over their heads- the direct results of smoking. No. Instead they have figures like Joe Camel. Some children are as familiar with Joe Camel as they are with Mickey Mouse! In the first 4 years that the Camel ads featured Joe Camel, smokers under 18 raised from 1% to as much as 30%. The cigarette companies know that children like humor and cartoons, and Joe Camel has both.

Ads directed to teens and young adults send out mixed messages for us to misinterpret. They send out the message, "If you smoke, you will be popular, and desirable" without coming out and saying it. Instead they show people having fun with a large group, which makes you think if you smoke that brand, you can have that much fun too. The people in the add are normally active, but when you smoke, your lungs are so damaged, it's hard to run and play sports. Cigarette ads targeted towards women always promote slimness. Six years after Virgina Slims were introduced, twice as many women were smoking. The cigarette ad makes you think that by smoking, you can become thin and healthy. All smoking ads are set in places with clean, wholesome settings, never showing the cloud of smoke that comes out of the cigarette. Advertisers know exactly how to target different groups of people, kids and women especially. The six American cigarette companies together spend three billion dollars annually for advertising. The reason for this? They need to pull younger kids into it to replace the smokers that have died or quit.

When you teach teenagers the dangers of smoking, it has a limited effect. They already know it's bad for them. Peer influence seems to play an important role in smoking. Teenagers who have close friends who smoke are more likely to be smokers themselves. Smoking may be viewed as a forbidden adult behavior, or even an act of defiance to authority figures. Poor grades in school and having parents who smoke are associated with teenage smoking. For males, not going to college is also associated with higher rates of smoking. This is not true for females. Parental approval or disapproval seems not to have any conclusive effect on teen-age decision about smoking. Smoking helps you make friends and make you more desirable.

Another reason why people start smoking could be from living with people who smoke. Children who grow up with smokers take up the habit more frequently then those who grow up in a smoke-free home. The Health Bulletin of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services revealed this as a fact. Peer pressure is a major influence among teenagers in our society. Young adults who have friends who take up the habit tend to start themselves.

There are many reasons why people start to smoke but is it worth it to start? Next time you see a cigarette ad, think about the truth and don't fall into the advertiser's trap.

Why do people start smoking???

People continue to smoke for several reasons. The nicotine in cigarettes is a stimulant. Initially, it gives a person a sense of alertness by increasing heart rate and blood pressure. Shortly after that, it relaxes muscles and decreases irritability. Smokers report that nicotine lifts their spirits. Nicotine also suppresses appetite and speeds up metabolism, which can help keep a person’s weight down. Many people are afraid they’ll gain weight if they quit smoking. But studies show the average weight gain after quitting is only 5 to 10 pounds. Young people often start smoking as a way to feel "cool" or grown-up. There’s a national trend toward fewer adults smoking, but the rate of smoking among adolescents has actually edged upward in recent years. Once you get hooked on smoking, it’s difficult to quit. Nicotine is an addictive drug that affects the chemistry of the brain and central nervous system. When trying to stop smoking, a person can suffer both physical and psychological withdrawal symptoms, including irritability, difficulty concentrating, headaches, problems sleeping, and an intense desire for tobacco.

One of the most serious health problems facing our nation is cigarette smoking. Each year, tens of thousands die, and countless more suffer from chronic diseases, as a consequence of prolonged smoked. Most smokers develop the habit during their teen years, so this project has been designed to provide information for middle school students specifically. In this handbook, you'll discover what tobacco and nicotine are, the reasons why people begin to smoke, and the particular allure of smoking for teenagers. Additionally, there are links to other web resources. You can either read the handbook sequentially, or jump immediately to a topic of interest using the controls at the bottom of each page. This work was created over a period of three months by two classes of eighth graders. After studying the hazards associated with tobacco in Mrs. Linda Sokol's Health classes, the students wrote the text and designed the graphics in Mr. Rick Donahue's Computer Technology classes. Art teacher Mrs. Dorothy Johnson provided guidance in the project's visual design, and Mrs. Jan Nowak, an English teacher, edited the text. The visuals incorporate two differing styles. The silhouettes profile both smokers and non-smokers. The three color graphics, created in the style of artist Roy Lichtenstein, reflect student attitudes toward the dangers associated with tobacco.

Tobacco is the prepared leaves of several plants of the nightshade family, used for smoking or chewing as snuff. The tobacco plant is native to tropical America and is now wildly grown all over the world. You can find tobacco in cigarettes, cigars, pipes, and chewing tobacco (snuff). Nicotine is a poisonous alkaloid contained in the leaves, roots and seeds of tobacco plants. It is used as an insecticide and sometimes used in medicine.

Tobacco and nicotine are very harmful substances that have many harmful effects on humans as well as animals. People who chew tobacco are likely to develop problems in the mouth. Tobacco also inhibits antibodies that protect your gums. If you chew tobacco for a long period of time in the same spot in your mouth, it can burn a hole right through your mouth. Tobacco develops sores in your mouth and gives you gingivitis, an irritation of the gums causing puffiness. Even though tobacco models display gleaming white teeth if you use tobacco your teeth turn yellow. Tobacco also gives you oral carcinoma of lateral border of the tongue.

Tobacco does not just harm your mouth but it also harms all other places in your body. Inhaling tobacco can give you lung cancer or respiratory problems. When you inhale tobacco, the tobacco destroys the cilia in your esophagus. The cilia protects you from diseases, so you are more likely to become sick then a person who does not inhale tobacco. Tobacco destroys lung tissue so you are more prone to lung cancer. If tobacco gets into your blood stream it takes away oxygen in your blood, slowing down physical activity. Tobacco also harms many parts of your body, like your liver and pancreas. Swallowing tobacco will also cause damage to your stomach.

There are different ways to smoke tobacco. The most common cigarettes, a small role of thin sheets of treated paper for smoking. There are pipes, a tube with a bowl of clay or wood or another material at one end for smoking, cigars, a tight role of cured tobacco leaves for smoking. And smokeless tobacco, which teens think is better for you, but isn't.

Teenagers think that smokeless tobacco is safer than cigarettes. They are wrong. Smokeless tobacco can cause bleeding gums, or sores, in the mouth that will never go away. Smokeless tobacco can also give you holes in your mouth that go all the way through.

Tobacco has benefits. It is useful if you are trying to kill insects because insects are so small it will kill them instantly. Some gardeners put tobacco on their plants so the insects will stay away. Tobacco has the same ingredients as rat poison (cyanide), dead frog preserver (formaldehyde), and toilet bowel cleaner (ammonia).

Nicotine is the drug in the tobacco product that gets you addicted to the tobacco product. Once a person inhales nicotine they are addicted to it. It is very hard to get off nicotine just as it would be hard to stop using an illegal drug.

There are many facts about tobacco and nicotine but the one main fact is that when taken by smoking or chewing, it never does any good for a person.

By now, everybody should know that smoking is harmful and can also lead to death. Smoking can lead to emphysema and asthma. These are only two of the many consequences of smoking. Smoking is not only harmful for the user, but it also affects the harmless people around the user that inhale the filthy smoke. This is called second-hand smoke. All parts of the body are affected when you smoke. Your face, your finger tips, and many others. Smoking can make you also have wrinkles and it tightens your skin. So, when you are 16 and still smoking by 20, you will look 35.

There are many effects from smoking. Long term effects include: Lung cancer, emphysema, heart disease, and ulcers. Short term effects include: coughing, shortness of breath, and premature signs of aging such as wrinkles. Those facts are not surprising, because when you smoke, you are inhaling over 2,000 known cancer-causing chemicals. Lung cancer is presently the number one killer in both men and women, and it is estimated that by the year 2000, approximately over 300,000 people will die from lung cancer in the United States. These are a few facts that will have you thinking about the effects of smoking. In the next paragraph, I will talk more about lung cancer and its treatments.

Lung cancer kills more men and women than any other form of cancer. Eighty percent of lung cancer cases have been linked to cigarette smoking. The risk of lung cancer is proportional to the number of cigarettes smoked. The disease spreads quickly which makes it hard to save the lives of the patients. Lung cancers are classified into small cell or non-small cell. Small cell cancer is the most aggressive type of lung cancer and has the worst prognosis. This kind of cancer tends to grow rapidly spread to other parts of the body early. Non-small cell cancer spreads to lymph nodes of the chest and it enters the blood stream where it gets carried to other organs such as the liver, bone, brain, and spinal cord.

Emphysema is a condition where there is too much inflation of lungs known as the air sacs. The over inflation of the air sacs make the air sacs walls breakdown. Some symptoms of emphysema are shortness of breath and a cough. The elastic fibers in the lung allow the to expand and contract. A healthy lung has a great balance between two kinds of chemicals with opposing action. When the balance is changed, the lungs lose the ability to protect themselves against the destruction of these elastic fibers. Smoking is responsible for 82% of chronic lung disease. The treatment for this disease is if you smoke, you should quit. You can get antibiotics, also exercise is good. A lung transplant could be required in extreme cases.

Smoking causes other respiratory diseases like chronic coughs, shortness of breath, asthma, and emphysema. A smoker will also make colds, flu, and ordinary illnesses worse than usual. That happens because their immune system is worse than before they started smoking. A smoker will wake up everyday with a hacking cough and it stays there all day.

Smoking dyes the smoker's teeth and fingernails yellow. It gives smokers bad breath, and it causes mouth cancers and gum disease. Smoking damages teeth and gums permanently. Smoker's teeth fall out faster than non-smokers and smoker's are likely candidates for oral cancer. Oral cancer is cancer of the mouth. It is on the tongue, cheek, and gums. Some of the symptoms are: sores in mouth that don't go away, red or white patches in mouth, constant bleeding in mouth, numbness in mouth, swelling or lump in mouth, and a late symptom- difficult in swallowing and speech. If a smoker stops smoking it can prevent the risk of oral cancer.

Babies who are born to mothers who smoke usually are 200 grams lighter than babies born to mothers that don't smoke. Smoke inhalation contributes to babies being victims of "Sudden Infant Death Syndrome."

In conclusion, if you are thinking about smoking, think twice because smoking is bad for you. Smoking can cause cancer, emphysema, gum disease, and many more. Smoking kills more people than any other cancer combined also including aids. I hope you, the smoker, learned something from this.

Teenage smoking has become a big problem in the United States as well as the rest of the world. Almost half the percent of teenagers who smoke never admit they have a problem. Once these teenagers start to smoke they become addicted physically and psychologically and that's the part that makes it tough for them to quit. Teenage smoking is being promoted to kids through magazines, and television shows. Even though cigarette advertisements have been banned from television, it's not enough. We have to find a way to ban all these things because it's putting kids' lives in danger.

According to Facts About Teenage Smoking prepared by Susan E. Mason, teenage smoking has risen over the last 20 years. About 19% of males are regular smokers and 27% of females are regular smokers. Females who smoke at least a pack a day, increased from 10-39% between 1969 and 1975, yet the male percentage has stayed at about 31%. Recently, female teenagers have become more avid smokers than males.

There are many reasons why teenagers smoke. One of the most common reasons is peer pressure. Kids have a hard time resisting doing what their friends want. Teenagers who smoke are more likely to have lower self images. They start smoking because they think it will give them a better image like being cooler, more attractive, or more popular. Because of their low self image, they don't have the confidence to "say no" when a cigarette is offered to them. Teenagers who are smoking become addicted because of the nicotine and that makes it harder for them to quit. Cigarette advertisements are designed to make people think that smoking is cool and that everyone does it. These misleading ads appear to increase kids' smoking. The companies also say that they are not persuading their customers to smoke, their customers are deciding for themselves.

There are many people who smoke who would love to be able to quit, but cannot. Once the nicotine enters your blood, your body needs the nicotine. This makes it very difficult to quit. Here are some methods of quitting. Pick the day that you will stop smoking and stick to it! Drink lots of liquids- fruit juices, water or herbal tea. One more, when you get the urge to smoke, reach for some gum or mints instead. These might not always work, but there is no sense in not trying.

There is a high percentage of teenage smokers although 90% say they want to try to quit. Approximately 19% of teenage males are regular smokers. Females consuming at least a pack a day increased from 10% to 39% between 1969 and 1975. Heavy male smokers, in this age range, remained at about 31%. When gender is looked at, females are becoming more avid cigarette smokers than males.

Scare tactics, peer group discussions, media demonstrations, bio-feedback programs have been tried. As for now, no conclusive evidence exists about the best ways to prevent teenagers from starting smoking. At present, we know that teen-agers, especially females, are continuing to smoke at higher rates, causing injury to their health. We do not know how to effectively prevent or stop them. The best way is not to start and if you have started- QUIT!

In conclusion, people all over are trying to stop teenagers from smoking, as well as everyone else. It is taking some time, but as you can see, teenagers all over are learning the right thing to do.

What exactly is second hand smoke? Each time someone smokes, poisons are released into the air. That means that not only are the smokers inhaling the smoke, but you are too. Many studies have shown that this second hand smoke can have harmful effects on nonsmokers and even cause them to develop diseases such as lung cancer, respiratory diseases, and trigger asthma attacks. Who do you think breathes in the smoke and chemicals? You do! If you can smell the smoke, it's affecting you.

Second hand smoke not only damages the body, it may even cause life-threatening diseases such as lung cancer. Plus, nonsmokers who are exposed to environment tobacco smoke (ETS) have a 30% increased risk of dying from heart disease. Second-hand smoke has an especially bad effect on infants and children whose parents smoke. A number of studies show that in their first two years of life, babies of parents who smoke at home have a much higher rate of lung disease. And smoking by pregnant women, seems to predispose premature babies to respiratory distress syndrome. Even among children without asthma, a team of researchers found that acute respiratory illnesses happen twice as often to young children whose parents smoke around them as compared to those with nonsmoking parents.

Side stream smoke is a smoke that is somewhat diluted in the air, but it starts off with twice the amount of nicotine and tar, three times the amount of cancer causing agents, and five times the amount of carbon monoxide. The actual definition of side stream smoke is the smoke that comes off of the cigarette before the smoker has inhaled any of the poisonous gases.

Even if you personally don't smoke, you probably come into contact with cigarette smokers. However, you can try to avoid second-hand smoke by going to restaurants that have nonsmoking sections, sitting in nonsmoking sections of trains, buses, and airplanes, and requesting that friends and family refrain from smoking in your room or apartment. Even in a public place, many smokers will respond favorably to a polite request to refrain from smoking.

In conclusion, smoking is extremely hazardous to everyone, not just the smoker themselves. It is important to know what secondhand smoke is, and its consequences. So please take the advice given in this article and use it. You do not have to breathe in the damaging chemicals in smoke!

Did you ever ask yourself why you started to smoke? or Is this really good for my image in gaining a friend and getting a job? Well, if you didn't, you should. If you don't know why you started to smoke, even if you do, the best time to quit is now. Statistics show that you have a better chance of getting a job if you are a non- smoker than a smoker. If you are very smart and talented, you shouldn't waste your time smoking, there are no benefits from being a smoker.

To quit smoking is usually very difficult, and many ex-smokers go through the quitting process several times before becoming permanent quitters. It is useful to think of the smoking habit as having two primary components: The physical and the psychological, although the distinction between the two is sometimes difficult to make. The physical aspect of addiction is a result of continued exposure to nicotine. All tobacco products contain substantial amounts of nicotine, a powerful drug, which acts in the brain and throughout the body. With each cigarette smoked, this powerful drug exerts its effects.

Quitting makes a difference right away. Your cough disappears, your breath smells better, and you can smell and taste your food better. If you quit, your lungs will quickly begin to repair the damage caused by smoking. After 10 years of not smoking, your risk of lung cancer is reduced by 1/3, and your risk of death is cut in half. These great results occur for men and women of all ages. It happens for healthy people as well as those who already have a disease or condition caused by smoking. When you quit smoking, you cut the risk of lung cancer, heart disease, stroke, and respiratory problems. Ex-smokers have fewer days of illness, fewer health complaints, and less bronchitis and pneumonia than current smokers. Quitting smoking saves you lots of money too! A pack-a-day smoker, who pays two dollars per pack, can save more than seven hundred dollars a year. In case you haven't noticed, the prices will continue to drastically increase over the next few years. Health care will increase as well. The more you smoke, the more health care you require.

The vast majority of smokers prefer to try to quit on there own. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently reported that 90 percent of successful quitters have used a self-help strategy. Self-help strategies are popular because they are typically cheaper then clinic-based programs and more convent because they do not require participation in meetings or group sessions.

When getting ready to quit, set a date for your self. If possible, have a friend start on that date as well. Notice when and why you smoke. Try to find things in your daily life that you often do during a cigarette (such as drinking your morning cup of coffee, your way to school or work, talking on the telephone, watching television, or listening to the radio.) Change your smoking routines. Keep your cigarettes in a different place, try smoking with the other hand. Think about how you feel when you smoke. Try to pinpoint why your feelings exist. Does smoking make you feel good? Buy one pack of cigarettes at a time. By a brand that you don't like. This may decrease your desire to have a cigarette.

Other people prefer to use either the nicotine patch or the nicotine gum. The gum is supposed to stop the person's craving for the cigarette. This is good because you get a substitute for the cigarette, so when you would normally go for the cigarette, you will instead go for the gum. The patch is also supposed to stop the desire for the cigarettes, but with no substitute, so unlike the gum, you have nothing to take the place of the cigarette. Not having a substitute might be harder for people who are very addicted to the cigarettes.

No matter what form of quitting you choose, it's still very hard to stop. Many people who try to quit aren't able to do so. Quitting smoking completely is one of the most difficult things to do. If you do manage to quit smoking, it's a big accomplishment. It could help you live much longer, but it's always best just not to start at all.

Cigarette smoke contains more than 4,000 chemical compounds, including cyanide, formaldehyde, and ammonia. Constantly exposing the human body to these toxins, plus the drug nicotine, has serious health consequences.

• Cancer. Cancer is probably the best-known health risk associated with smoking. Not only does smoking account for the vast majority of lung cancer cases, it’s also responsible for most of the cancers of the mouth and throat.

• Heart disease. Smoking doubles the risk for heart disease. Nicotine causes the release of hormones that increase blood pressure and heart rate, forcing the heart to work harder. The carbon monoxide in cigarette smoke displaces up to 12 percent of the oxygen in the blood, leaving less oxygen available to the heart and other organs. Smoking also increases the potential for blood clots and plaque buildup on artery walls, and it lowers levels of beneficial HDL cholesterol in the bloodstream. Together, these effects contribute to hardening of the arteries.

• Hypertension. One of smoking’s short-term effects is increasing blood pressure, and many experts believe that it contributes to long-term hypertension.

• Osteoporosis. People who smoke are 50 percent more likely to develop osteoporosis than nonsmokers. Researchers believe chemicals in tobacco are toxic to bone cells. As bones become progressively weaker, they are more likely to break. And studies have shown that the broken bones of smokers take nearly twice as long to heal as those of nonsmokers.

Yes, Smoking is Bad For You, But You Know That!

The fact that cigarette smoking is dangerous to your health is hardly new information. Cigarette smoking is the single most preventable cause of disease and early death in the United States. So why do so many teens continue to smoke? There are lots of reasons, you usually start for one reason or another and then it is really hard to quit. It is, but you can!

DID you know that... Lung cancer caused by smoking is now the top female cancer killer, claiming 27,000 more women's lives each year than breast cancer. AND more teenage girls -- 30 percent -- are smoking now than 10 years ago. That’s a big increase.

So why do people smoke? Because nicotine acts in the brain where it can stimulate feelings of pleasure... and pleasure feels good! It also will work as an appetite suppressant for some people.

Nicotine activates areas of the brain that are involved in producing feelings of pleasure and reward. Recently, scientists discovered that nicotine raises the levels of a neurotransmitter called dopamine in the parts of the brain that produce feelings of pleasure and reward. Dopamine, which is sometimes called the pleasure molecule, is the same neurotransmitter that is involved in addictions to other drugs such as cocaine and heroin. Researchers now believe that this change in dopamine may play a key role in all addictions. This may help explain why it is so hard for people to stop smoking.

Experimental smoking usually begins the habit. Next comes occasional cigarette smoking at parties, on weekends, with friends, or when trying to lose weight. This is the most dangerous stage because it usually leads to an addictive phase, when teens become regular smokers. People who start smoking before the age of 21 have the hardest time quitting, and fewer than 1 in 10 people who try to quit smoking succeed. (from the CDC, yell at them, not us).

There is no safe amount of smoking. Every cigarette causes some harm to the body. Once smoke touches the lips, it begins to attack living tissues, and it continues its attack wherever it goes. Cigarette smokers have less ability to carry oxygen to the rest of the body. This is why smokers have less endurance when running or participating in sports.

Smokers also get wrinkles at an earlier age. The smoke changes the elasticity of the skin and fine lines appear around the eyes and mouth. Your clothes and hair will smell from smoke and you can no longer smell it. Kissing a smoker is like kissing an ashtray.

Smoking Can Make You Sick

Smokers miss more days of school and work than nonsmokers because they get more respiratory infections (colds, coughs, sore throats, and sinus and ear problems). The infections are a result of damage to cilia in the lungs. Cilia are tiny parts of the lung that act like little brooms, sweeping out bacteria, viruses, and dirt. When they stop clearing the lungs, the germs and dirt stay there, resulting in more frequent and longer-lasting colds.

Quitting Smoking

Quitting smoking is possible. Every year 2 million Americans stop smoking. But, it is not easy. It requires motivation by the smoker and may take several attempts before success is permanent. There is no right way to quit. Many smokers report they can quit abruptly -- better known as "cold turkey." Others report quitting gradually by decreasing the number of cigarettes smoked each day. Those who are interested in quitting can talk with their health care provider or, in the U.S., call the American Cancer Society 1-800 227-2345 or the American Lung Association 1-800 586-4872 for useful information on how to quit.

If you are thinking about smoking, the only way to avoid getting hooked on cigarettes is never to start in the first place. And with the price of cigarettes as high as they are today you will have all that extra money if you STOP smoking. Yes, you can do it!

A. NO! It’s true that many people think smokeless tobacco (also known as chewing tobacco or snuff) isn’t as bad as cigarettes. One study quoted said that 77 percent of kids thought cigarette smoking was very harmful, but only 40 percent thought smokeless tobacco was harmful.

The truth is that smokeless tobacco use is connected with all sorts of problems. Smokeless tobacco can cause bleeding gums and sores of the mouth that never heal. Eventually you may end up with cancer of the tongue or salivary glands. Tobacco is tobacco: it all contains nicotine, and nicotine is very addictive! It stains your teeth a yellowish-brown color. It gives you bad breath. It can make you dizzy, give you the hiccups, even make you throw up. (Definitely NOT cool!)