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Smoking is responsible for an estimated 7 percent of total U.S. health care costs.

Tobacco use accounts for much of the 18 percent increase in the incidence of cancer and the 7 percent rise in cancer's mortality since 1971.

Cancer is currently the second largest killer in the nation behind heart disease, but could become the top killer in five years.

The number 1 cause of deaths from fire is smoking. Most of these deaths occur when somebody falls asleep and drops a cigarette on a piece of furniture or a mattress.

Young and otherwise healthy people who smoke are more easily injured than nonsmokers.

Young people who use tobacco have abnormally high heartbeats, low tolerance for exercise, and an increased risk of damaging arteries from fatty buildups associated with heart disease, according to the American Heart Association's first report on tobacco-related health problems among minors. In addition, exposure to tobacco smoke exacerbates asthma, decreases lung capacity, and increases the frequency and severity of respiratory infections.

Smoking cessation facts

Within two years after people quit smoking, the risk of death from heart disease declines 24 percent. Quitting for 10 to 14 years produces a risk level almost equal with someone who never smoked.

Seventy percent of adults who smoke want to quit completely.

Smoking cessation among high school dropouts is much lower than among people with a higher level of education.

• By 1993, an estimated 38.2% of high school dropouts who had ever smoked had quit, compared to 45.2% of high school graduates and 65.4% of college graduates.

More female smokers (73% ) are likely to want to quit smoking than male smokers (67% ).

Cessation Aids

Recent studies show that nicotine replacement therapies-- skin patches, sprays , inhalers and nicotine gum-- can help some smokers quit.

People using aids are 70% more likely to quit than those using placebos.

Researchers are exploring drugs that prevent the crankiness, weight gain, and sleep disorders that are often associated with smoking cessation.

20% of the 50 million smokers attempt to quit smoking each year, only 6% of smokers successfully quit cold turkey.

The nicotine patch helps about one-fourth of smokers (27%). Those who used nicotine patches to quit smoking were still not smoking six months later, only about one-tenth (13%) who were given "placebo" patches continued to abstain from smoking after 6 months.

Smoking-- Pregnancy and Children

• Smoking may cause up to 7.5% of all miscarriages.
• Between 19,000 and 141,000 miscarriages per year in the U.S. can be linked to smoking.
• As many as 26,000 newborns each year are admitted to intensive care units because of low birth weight caused by smoking.
• 2,200 causes of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) may be caused by maternal tobacco use.
• Smoking and SIDS: Infants whose mothers smoked during pregnancy are nearly three times more likely than the babies of non-smokers to have episodes sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

Even light smoking during pregnancy can affect a growing baby. Mothers who smoke only 10 cigarettes a day cause their children under 5 to have positive blood tests for nicotine and cancer-causing compounds.

• The American health foundation cited increased cigarette smoking as a factor in the deteriorating health of the nation's children.
• The foundation found that use of cigarettes among high school seniors increased in 1993 after several years of decline.
• Roughly 3,000 children in the U.S. become addicted to tobacco every day.
• One million teens start smoking every year.
• About half of all adolescent smokers have parents who smoke.

Although it's illegal in all states to sell cigarettes to persons younger than 18 years old, teens are able to buy cigarettes over the counter between 70-80% of the time.

Of the 44 states that prohibit cigarette sales to minors, only three have reported any violations of the law.

Marketing

• Joe Camel is as familiar to 6 year old kids as Mickey Mouse.
• The Joe Camel marketing plan was the third most successful advertising campaign in the U.S. during 1992.
• The tobacco industry spent $123 million on billboards and other outdoor advertising in 1992, making it the largest outdoor advertiser.

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