Facts About and Consequences of Smoking - NCCG.ORG Ning Network Archive 2008-10

Number of Deaths per year*
Tobacco use remains the leading preventable cause of death in the United States, causing more than 400,000 deaths each year and resulting in more than $50 billion in direct medical costs. More than 3,000 teenagers and children begin smoking every day.

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1. Each day more than 3,000 American teenagers start smoking. At least 3.1 million
adolescents are current smokers.

2. Tobacco is often the first drug used by young people who use alcohol and illegal drugs.

3. Peers, siblings, and friends are powerful influences. Over 50 percent of teens report smoking
their first cigarette with a friend.

4. Spit tobacco is definitely not a safe alternative to cigarettes.

5. Teens become dependent on nicotine as quickly as adults, and find it just as difficult to quit.

6. The tobacco industry spends over $5.2 billion a year on advertising to convince young
people they should take up smoking.

7. Tobacco advertising increases young people's risk of smoking by conveying that smoking has
social benefits and is far more common than it really is.

8. Advertising aimed at women increases smoking among teenage girls.

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Smoking is a bad habit that results in terrible consequences, especially if it is exposed to children at a young age.
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Children and Tobacco: The Facts
"While cigarette companies claim that they do not intend to market to children, their intentions are
irrelevant if advertising affects what children know. RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company is as effective as the
Disney Channel in reaching 6-year-old children. Given this fact and the known health consequences of
smoking, cigarette advertising may be an important health risk for children."

-- Fischer, et al., Journal of the American Medical Association, December 11, 1991. March 1995.

Teenagers respond to tobacco advertising

The Surgeon General has concluded that tobacco advertising and promotion do appear to stimulate cigarette consumption.1
About 85 percent of adolescent smokers prefer either Marlboro, Newport, or Camel, the three most heavily advertised
cigarette brands.2

After the Joe Camel campaign was introduced, Camel's market share among underage smokers jumped from 0.5 percent to
32.8 percent in three years.3

Tobacco advertisements are appealing to kids

Tobacco advertising emphasizes themes (sexual attraction, social acceptance, thinness, and independence) which appeal to
youth.4

Six year olds are familiar enough with cigarette advertising that they match the 'Old Joe' Camel character with cigarettes as
often as they pair Mickey Mouse with the Disney Channel.5 When asked what cigarette brand was most frequently advertised,
only 13.7 percent of adults named Camel, compared to 28.5 percent of adolescents (12 to 17 years old). Recognition of the
Joe Camel campaign was highest among 12 and 13 year olds.6

Children are frequently exposed to tobacco advertising

Cigarette advertising expenditures for promotional items such as hats, t-shirts, and key chains quadrupled, from $184 million to
$756 million, between 1991 and 1993. These items bear no health warnings and are easily obtained by kids.7
Thirty percent of kids (12 to 17 years old), both smokers and nonsmokers, own at least one tobacco promotional item.8
While overall cigarette advertising in magazines has declined sharply, the number of ads per issue in magazines with substantial
youth readership has remained constant.9

The public supports regulation designed to prevent teenage tobacco use

According to a recent survey, adults overwhelmingly support measures which would prohibit tobacco advertising which appeals
to children. Seventy-one percent favor extending regulation of nicotine products, such as patches and gum, to cigarettes; 73
percent believe tobacco ads without pictures and cartoons would make smoking less appealing to kids; 74 percent think
cigarette pack coupons for promotional items which appeal to youth should be eliminated.10 Sixty-one percent of adults believe
that the tobacco industry encourages teenagers to smoke.11

According to a March 1996 poll, 88 percent of Americans think their member of Congress should support the Food and Drug
Administration's proposal to stop the sale and marketing of cigarettes to children; 47 percent said they would be less likely to
vote for a local member of Congress who was accepting campaign contributions from the tobacco companies; and 81 percent
of Americans do not trust tobacco companies to promote voluntary restrictions on the sale and marketing of their products to
children. (Global Strategy Group, for the American Heart Association, March 19, 1996.)

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1. "Reducing the Health Consequences of Smoking: 25 Years of Progress," A Report of the Surgeon General, Department of Health and Human Services, 1989.

2. "Comparison of Cigarette Brand Preference of Adult and Teenage Smokers," Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Centers for Disease Control, 1992.

3. "RJR Nabisco's Cartoon Camel Promotes Camel Cigarettes to Children," Journal of the American Medical Association, December 11, 1991.

4. "Current Trends in Cigarette Advertising and Marketing," New England Journal of Medicine, Vol. 316, 1987.

5. "Brand Logo Recognition by Children Aged 3 to 6 Years," Journal of the American Medical Association, December 11, 1991.

6. "Does Tobacco Advertising Target Young People to Start Smoking?" Journal of the American Medical Association, December 11, 1991.

7. Federal Trade Commission, "1995 Federal Trade Commission Report to Congress for 1993," 1995.

8. "Teen-age Attitudes and Behaviors Concerning Tobacco," Gallup International Institute, September 1992.

9. "Minority Issues," Tobacco Use: An American Crisis, Washington, DC: American Medical Association, 1993.

10. "Youth Access to Tobacco," Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, February, 1995.

11. New York Times/CBS Poll, May 1994.

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