Cigarettes and Tobacco
 
Here you will find why tobacco and it's different ways of consumption are harmful for your health.
 
What is it?
 
Tobacco is rolled into cigarettes and cigars, packed into pipes and placed directly in the mouth for chewers of smokeless tobacco or "chew". Tobacco has nicotine, an extremely addictive substance that is absorbed in the lungs and mouth.  It is the nicotine which gives people the high they feel when they smoke or chew.
 
Why is it a problem?
 
There are many reasons that scientists have discovered for why people shouldn't smoke or chew tobacco.
 
Cigarettes are very harmful to your body even if you only smoke for a short time. Even smoking just one cigarette a day can give you lung problems, smokers' cough and bad breath. It also affects your sense of taste and smell.
 
The nicotine in tobacco products is addictive in the same way as heroin and cocaine. Most people would like to quit smoking and chewing, but cannot because they are addicted to nicotine. There is a very high chance that you will become addicted to smoking or chewing tobacco even if you try it only a couple of times.
 
People who smoke or chew have a very high risk of developing cancer because tobacco contains many substances that cause cancer. Chemicals like ammonia, which is used to clean toilets, cyanide, which is used to kill rats, and formaldehyde, which is used to preserve dead animals like the frogs in your science lab are all found in cigarette smoke.
 
More than eight out of 10 cases of lung cancer are caused by smoking.
 
Smokeless tobacco increases the risks of mouth cancer and other diseases of the mouth like tooth decay and gum recession.
 
Over 400,000 Americans die each year from smoking-related diseases. That's more than from AIDS, alcohol, car accidents, fires, illegal drugs, murders and suicides combined.
 
Smoking is dangerous for non-smokers who breathe the smoke from smoker’s cigarettes. During the 12 minutes a cigarette burns, smoke from the cigarette fills the room with poisonous gases that everyone else in the room will breathe.
 
Fires started by cigarettes cause 25,000 deaths each year in this country.
 
What does this have to do with me?
 
Most people who smoke started smoking when they were between the ages of 11 and 14. About half of high-school seniors who smoke daily began smoking by age 15.
 
Did you know that non-smokers tend to do better in school than smokers? Of those seniors with an A average in their senior year, only 7 in 100 were current daily smokers; of those with a D average, 46 in 100 were daily smokers.
 
Cigarette advertising plays a very big role in convincing teens to try smoking. Shiny ads in magazines and bright colors on billboards are meant to make people, especially teenagers, think that smoking is good.
 
Smoking can be very expensive. Smoking one pack of cigarettes a day will cost you more than $700 in a year.