What's the Real Deal? Info for Teens About Tobacco

Hey! It’s great that you are visiting this page because it means that you are looking for more information about tobacco and the risks of using it. You can learn a lot from this page and share it with your friends.

Tobacco Facts
• 90% of smokers start before they are 21
• Tobacco causes more health problems and early deaths than all illegal drugs combined.
• One chew of tobacco contains 15x more nicotine than a cigarette. That means that it is easier to get addicted to it.
• 70% of teens 12-17 who smoke wish they had never started

Reasons not to smoke
Expensive! Did you know: If you smoke a pack a day, you’ll spend $1200 in one year! That could buy over 60 CDs. That’s a lot of music.

Bad breath and yellow teeth - tar and nicotine build up on your teeth, tongue and sides of cheeks. Smoking dries up your mouth by slowing down how much spit you make. Bacteria grows in your dry mouth and causes bad breath.

Smelly hands and hair – Some of the same things that are harmful to you when you inhale smoke can also make your hands smell bad. Holding a cigarette causes the ingredients in smoke to stick to your fingers. Smoking kills your sense of taste and smell. As you exhale, smoke gets in your hair and stays there for a while. Even though you can’t smell it, other people can.

Breathing problems – tar and carbon monoxide from smoking cause serious breathing problems by making your lungs “sticky”. When you breath in tobacco smoke, your lungs get covered with tar. Eventually, this tar coats and dries out the air sacks in your lungs. This is what is known as emphysema.

Stinky smelling clothes – smoke sticks to your clothes and causes them to stink.

Diseases you can get from smoking
Heart disease – nicotine raises your risk of heart attack and stroke

Gum disease – you can get deep pockets between teeth and gums. This also causes bad breath and increases your risk of cavities

Cancer – Smoking tobacco can cause lung, throat, mouth and gum cancer

Chewing tobacco - causes sores and white patches in your mouth. It gives you bad breath, discolors your teeth and causes tooth loss.

Things to do instead of smoking
Call a friend
Chew gum
Talk a walk or work out
Go to a movie or other smoke free places

If you have a friend who smokes help them stop by planning activities that don’t involve smoking. Let them know you support them in not smoking and maybe even like hanging out with them more when they don’t smoke.

If you think they need help, you can give them this web address. They might want to see the information for themselves. Quitting smoking can be difficult for a lot of people. However the sooner a person quits, the more they have to gain.

Test your tobacco knowledge
NIDA for Teens
TheTruth.com
QuitNET
Kids Health
Teen Wire

Disclaimer
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