Facts About Tobacco
- Smoking is as addictive as harder drugs like cocaine and heroin, it only takes an average of three cigarettes before there’s a strong chance you’ll become addicted.
- After a smoker inhales cigarette smoke, nicotine enters the blood in the lungs, goes through the heart and is pumped to the brain – a journey that takes only eight seconds.
- In the brain, nicotine locks into receptors on neurons making the smoker feel alert and satisfied. After a while, the brain shuts down some receptors so a smoker needs a cigarette just to feel normal.
- Research has shown that teenage smokers have three times the amount of plaque in major arteries then non-smokers. They are also more likely to get cavities and gum disease.
- Nicotine hurts blood vessels to the brain and blocks air from the lungs. Because of this, teens who smoke are 15 times more likely to have panic attacks, anxiety disorders and depression.
- The typical smoker spends about $1,800 a year on cigarettes.
- 90% of lung cancer is linked to smoking.
- Smoking costs a long-term smoker an average of twelve years off his or her life.
- Of the kids now under the age of 18 in Missouri, 140,000 will die prematurely from smoking.
Did you know?
- Everyone knows smoking can cause cancer when you get older, but did you know that it also has bad effects on your body right now? A cigarette contains about 4000 chemicals, many of which are poisonous. Some of the worst ones are:
- Nicotine: a deadly poison
- Arsenic: used in rat poison
- Methane: a component of rocket fuel
- Ammonia: found in floor cleaner
- Cadmium: used in car batteries
- Carbon Monoxide: part of car exhaust
- Butane: lighter fluid
- Formaldehyde: used to preserve dead body tissue
- Hydrogen Cyanide: the poison used in gas chambers
- Every time you inhale smoke from a cigarette, small amounts of these chemicals get into your blood through your lungs.
- Most teens aren’t smoking cigarettes. In fact, right here in Columbia Public School District, only 1 in 20 high school students smoke cigarettes regularly.
- Even though smoking isn’t common, you might think it is because you see it so much on television and in movies.
- Current movie heroes are three to four times more likely to smoke than people in real life.
- About 2/3 of movies seen today show tobacco use, including films that are rated PG or PG-13.
- 43% of the movies showed scenes in which tobacco use could be interpreted as attractive, cool, rebellious and celebratory.
So, next time you watch a movie, pay attention to the messages it’s sending about tobacco use. Compare that to the real effects!
Smokeless Tobacco
- Just like smoking cigarettes, chewing smokeless tobacco can eventually rip apart your body and kill you. There’s no such thing as a “safe” tobacco product.
- Immediate effects can disrupt your social life: bad breath and yellowish-brown stains on your teeth. You’ll also get mouth sores (about 70% of spit tobacco users have them).
- Consequences of chewing and spitting tobacco also include: cracking and bleeding lips and gums, receding gums (which can eventually make your teeth fall out), increased heart rate, high blood pressure, and irregular heartbeats, all leading to a greater risk of heart attacks and brain damage (from a stroke).
Oral and other types of cancer
Oral cancer means cancer of the mouth and can happen in the lips, the tongue, the floor of the mouth, the roof of the mouth, the cheeks, or gums. But cancer from chewing tobacco doesn’t just occur in the mouth. Some of the cancer-causing agents in the tobacco can get into the lining of your stomach, your esophagus, and into your bladder.
Effects of Tobacco Use
Gruen Von Behren – Began using chewing tobacco at age 13, diagnosed with oral cancer at age 17.
Get Information about other afflictions
| Facts about Alcohol | Facts about Tobacco |
| Facts about Marijuana | Facts about Other Drugs |
| Facts about Suicide and Depression | Facts about Dating Violence |
