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DO YOU SMELL SMOKE?
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The Tobacco Industry Spends $900 million dollars annually in New York State to promote its deadly products. Outraged? Want to learn more? Want to make a difference?
Every day the tobacco industry works to legitimize its business and normalize the use of their deadly product. If you are not a smoker and you are over age 25 you probably are unaware as to how much tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship goes on in our communities. The results are devastating.
Here are the five major strategies the tobacco industry uses on a daily basis in our communities. We guarantee that it will change forever the way you look at magazines, watch a movie and look around your local convenience store. Join us in raising awareness.
If you would like to find out more, visit our List of Coalitions (PDF) around the state.
Tobacco Use Stats
- Tobacco use begins young: 88% of adults who have ever
smoked tried their first cigarette by the age of 18;1 the average
age at which smokers try their first cigarette is 14 ½;2
- Nationally, more than 48,500,000 are currently smokers.3
- In New York State:
- 6.7% of middle school children smoke (Middle school
males=7.2%, Middle school females=5.6%)4
- 21.3% of high school students smoke (High school
males=21%, high school females=21.6%)5
- 23.3% of people over 18 smoke (Males=25.8%,
females=19.2%)6
- Tobacco Companies spend more than $11.22 billion in marketing
their products each year.7
Health Effects of Tobacco Use
- 440,000 people die from tobacco-related illnesses every year,
making it the leading cause of preventable death in the United
States;8 and
- Scientific studies have concluded that cigarette smoking can
cause chronic lung disease, coronary heart disease, and stroke,
in addition to cancer of the lungs, larynx, esophagus, mouth, and
bladder;9 and
- Each year, secondhand smoke kills an estimated 62,000
nonsmokers, including approximately 3,000 deaths due to lung
cancer and 35,000 deaths due to heart disease among
nonsmokers each year in the United States. 10
References
1Preventing Tobacco Use Among Young People: A Report of the Surgeon General. US Dept of Health and Human Services.1994.
2Ibid.
3Toll of Tobacco in the United States of America. Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids.
4New York State Youth Tobacco Survey. New York State Department of Health. 2002.
5Ibid.
6BRFSS. New York State Department of Health. 2002.
7Cigarette Report for 2001. US Federal Trade Commission (FTC). June 12, 2003.
8Annual Smoking-Attributable Mortality, Years of Potential Life Lost, and Economic Costs - United States: 1995-1999. U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 1999.
9US Dept of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Targeting Tobacco Use: The Nations Leading Cause of Death (2002). Available at http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/overview/oshaag/pdf
10“State-Specific Prevalence of Cigarette Smoking Among Adults and Children’s and Adolescents’ Exposure to ETS – US 1996.” CDC. MMWR.. 46 (44):1038-43
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