Smoking Kills – so why are people still doing it?
We all know about the dangers of smoking…yet it’s hard to understand that if it’s so bad- why do “good” people do it? Some of the most beautiful and talented people from TV, the internet, movies and magazines smoke. You may be thinking, “They look so good! How can it be bad for me?” or “If I smoke, maybe I’ll look like that…” Well they may look okay on the outside, but the inside is a totally different story. Read the facts below!
Just The Facts
- Tobacco use kills 5.4 million people a year – an average of one person every six seconds – and accounts for one in 10 adult deaths worldwide.
- Tobacco kills up to half of all users.
- There are more than one billion smokers in the world.
- Nicotine is highly addictive. The addictive effect of nicotine is the main reason why tobacco is widely used. Many smokers continue to smoke in order to avoid the pain of withdrawal symptoms. Smokers also adjust their behavior (inhaling more deeply, for example) to keep a certain level of nicotine in the body.
- Half of adults who smoke were regular smokers by their 18th birthday, and 90 percent had started by the age of 21.
- Every day approximately 4,000 children between 12 and 17 years of age smoke their first cigarette, and an estimated 1,300 of them will become regular smokers.Half of them will ultimately die from their habit.
- In 2007, 20 percent of high school students reported smoking in the last 30 days.
- Since 1990 teenagers and young adults have had the highest rates of maternal smoking during pregnancy. In 2005, 16.6 percent of female teens aged 15-19 and 18.6 percent of women aged 20-24 smoked during pregnancy.
- Among middle school students who were current cigarette users in 2004, 70.6 percent were not asked to show proof of age when they purchased or attempted to purchase cigarettes from a store, and 66.4 percent were not refused purchase because of their age.
- Tobacco use is associated with alcohol and illicit drug use, and acts as a “gateway drug.” Adolescents (12-17 year olds) who reported having smoked in the past 30 days were three times more likely to use alcohol, eight times more likely to smoke marijuana, and 22 times more likely to use cocaine within those past 30 days than adolescents who had not smoked during that time.
- Tobacco use in adolescence is also associated with a range of other unhealthy behaviors, including being involved in fights, carrying weapons, and engaging in high-risk sexual behavior.
- People who begin smoking at an early age are more likely to develop a severe addiction to nicotine than those who start at a later age.
- One study found that teens exposed to the greatest amount of smoking in movies were 2.6 times more likely to start smoking themselves compared with teens who watched the least amount of smoking in movies.
