What You Should Know About Tobacco
Tobacco use hurts your health and costs you in many ways. Here are some facts about tobacco use that every child and adult should know.
- Don’t get trapped. Nicotine in cigarettes, cigars, and spit tobacco is addictive.
- Smoking can damage your lungs and reduce your ability to breathe during sports and exercise.
- Smokers suffer shortness of breath (gasp!) almost 3 times more often than nonsmokers.
- Cigars, spit tobacco and vaping are NOT safe alternatives.
- Know the truth. Despite all the tobacco use on TV, movies, music videos, billboards and magazines — most teens, adults, and athletes DON’T use tobacco.
- Don’t waste (burn) money on tobacco. The average cost at 1 pack a day is over $1800 a year!
- Cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 deaths per year in the United States with more than 41,000 deaths resulting from secondhand smoke exposure alone.
- Get involved: make your team, school, home and community tobacco-free; teach others; join community efforts to prevent tobacco use.
Source: Centers for Disease Control’s Tobacco Information and Prevention Source and OAAC. Additional information is available at www.cdc.gov/tobacco