Holli Powell's List: Tobacco

• Nicotine, the main drug in tobacco, is one of the  most heavily used addictive drugs in the United States. In 2004, 29.2 percent of  the U.S. population 12 and older—70.3 million people—used tobacco at least once  in the month prior to being interviewed. This figure includes 3.6 million young  people age 12 to 17. Young adults aged 18 to 25 reported the highest rate of  current use of any tobacco products (44.6 percent) in 2004. Most of them smoked  cigarettes.

• Smoking is responsible for nearly 1 in 5 deaths in the United States.
• smoking is the most preventable cause of premature death in our society.
• Who Smokes?
• 44.5 million US adults
• This is 20.8% of all adults (23.9% of men, 18.0% of women) -- more than 1 out of  5 people

• Whites 21.9%
  African Americans 23.0%
  Hispanics 15.2%
  American  Indians/Alaska Natives 32.4%
  Asian Americans 10.4%
• almost 24% of those 18 to 44 years old were current smokers, compared to 10.2%  in those aged 65 or older.
• 22.3% of high school students and 8.1% of middle school students were smoking in  2004. More White and Hispanic students smoked cigarettes.
• About half of all Americans who continue to smoke will die because of the habit.  Each year about 438,000 people in the United States die from illnesses related  to cigarette smoking. Cigarettes kill more Americans than alcohol, car  accidents, suicide, AIDS, homicide, and illegal drugs combined
• Smoking is responsible for about 87% of lung cancer deaths. Lung cancer is the  leading cause of cancer death in both men and women, and is one of the most  difficult cancers to treat
• heart disease, aneurysms, bronchitis, emphysema, and stroke, and it makes  pneumonia and asthma worse

• Using tobacco can also damage a woman's reproductive health. Tobacco use is  linked with reduced fertility and a higher risk of miscarriage, early delivery  (premature birth), stillbirth, infant death, and is a cause of low birth-weight  in infants. It has also been linked to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
• including gum disease, cataracts, bone thinning, hip fractures, and peptic  ulcers. It is also linked to macular degeneration, an eye disease that can cause  blindness.
• CDC estimated that adult male smokers lost an average of 13.2 years of life and  female smokers lost 14.5 years of life because of smoking.

• Cigarettes, cigars, and spit and pipe tobacco are made from dried tobacco  leaves, as well as ingredients added for flavor and other properties. More than  4,000 individual chemicals have been identified in tobacco and tobacco smoke.  Among these are more than 60 chemicals that are known carcinogens  (cancer-causing agents).
• hundreds of substances added to cigarettes by manufacturers to enhance the  flavor or to make the smoking experience more pleasant. Some of the compounds  found in tobacco smoke include ammonia, tar, and carbon monoxide
• Addiction is characterized by the repeated, compulsive seeking or use of a  substance despite its harmful effects and consequences
• Nicotine is the addictive drug in tobacco. Regular use of tobacco products leads  to addiction in a high proportion of users
• Although 70% of smokers want to quit and more than 40% try to quit each year,  fewer than 5% succeed. This is because smokers not only become physically  addicted to nicotine; there is a strong emotional (psychological) aspect and  they often link smoking with many social activities.
• There is no way to accurately calculate a person's risk of getting cancer, but  the more you smoke and the longer you do it, the greater your risk.
• Those who quit in their 30s may avoid most of the risk due to tobacco use.

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• The number of younger Americans who smoke has been going down since the late  1990s
• The rates of tobacco smoking among teenagers are still higher than those of  adults. On top of that, about 1 in 7 high school boys use some form of spit or  other types of smokeless tobacco. Among high school girls, 2% use spit or  smokeless tobacco
• influenced by TV, movies, advertising, and by what their friends do and say.  They don't think much about future health consequences.
• Children and teens are easy targets
• Nearly all first use of tobacco takes place before high school graduation
• 54% of high school students had tried cigarette smoking at some point. For the  most part, people who do not start using tobacco when they are teens never start  using it.

• The younger you are when you begin to smoke, the more likely you are to be an  adult smoker. Almost 90% of adult smokers started at or before the age 19.   People who start smoking at younger ages are more likely to develop  long-term nicotine addiction than people who start later in life.
• Only 3 out of 100 high school smokers think they will be smoking in 5 years, but  in reality, studies show that 60 out of 100 will still be smoking 7 to 9 years  later

• Each day, more than 4,000 people under the age of 18 try their first  cigarette and another 1,300 become regular, daily smokers. Of those, about a  third will die from a smoking-related disease in the future.
• that teen tobacco users are more likely to use alcohol and illegal drugs than  are non-users. Cigarette smokers are also more likely to get into fights, carry  weapons, attempt suicide, suffer from mental health problems such as depression,  and engage in high-risk sexual behaviors.
• Spit or smokeless tobacco is a less lethal, but still unsafe alternative to  cigarettes. There are many terms used to describe spit tobacco that is put into  the mouth, such as spit, spitless, oral tobacco products, and chewing or snuff  tobacco
• Teens who use spit or other oral tobacco are also more likely to become  cigarette smokers than non-users.
• new smoking bans
• In light of bans like this, tobacco companies are more strongly marketing their  smokeless tobacco products
• discreet alternatives
• About 12% of students reported using some form of tobacco -- cigarettes, spit or  other oral tobacco and such as snuff, cigars, pipes, and flavored cigarettes  like bidis or kreteks -- at least once in the past 30 days. 
• • Cigarettes (about 8%) were the most common type of tobacco used, followed by  cigars (about 5%), spit or other smokeless tobacco (about 3%), pipes (about 3%),  bidis (about 2%), and kreteks (about 2%). 
• • Boys (about 13%) were slightly more likely than girls (about 11%) to use  some form of tobacco. Although girls were slightly more likely to smoke  cigarettes, boys were more likely to use spit or other smokeless tobacco, bidis,  kreteks, pipes, or cigars.
•  
  • Nationwide, about 28% of high school students reported using some type of  tobacco (cigarette, cigar, pipe, bidi, kretek, or spit tobacco) on at least 1 of  the 30 days before the survey.   
  • On average, more than 1 out of 5 students (23%) smoked cigarettes. Girls  were equally as likely to smoke as boys. White students (25%) were more likely  to smoke than black (11%), Hispanic/Latino (22%), or Asian (11%) students.    
  • About 8% of high school students reported using spit or other smokeless  tobacco at least once in the 30 days before the survey. Nearly 14% of all the  boys and more than 2% of all the girls surveyed had used some form of  spitsmokeless tobacco.   
  • About 14% of high school students had smoked cigars in the last 30 days.  Male students (19%) were more likely to smoke cigars than female students  (9%).   
  • Other tobacco use among high school students included pipes (about 3%),  bidis (about 3%), and kreteks (about 2%).
• Many kids start using tobacco by age 11. Many are addicted by age 14. 

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• Secondhand smoke, also known as environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) or passive  smoke, is a mixture of 2 forms of smoke from burning tobacco products:

   
   
  • Sidestream smoke: smoke that comes  from the end of a lighted cigarette, pipe, or cigar   
  • Mainstream smoke: smoke that is  exhaled by a smoker
• Non-smokers exposed to secondhand smoke absorb nicotine and other toxic  chemicals just like smokers do.

• Secondhand smoke can be harmful in many ways. In the United States alone,  each year it is responsible for:

   
   
  • an estimated 35,000 deaths from heart disease in non-smokers who live with  smokers   
  • about 3,400 lung cancer deaths in non-smoking adults   
  • other breathing problems in non-smokers, including coughing, mucus, chest  discomfort, and reduced lung function   
  • 150,000 to 300,000 lung infections (such as pneumonia and bronchitis) in  children younger than 18 months of age, which result in 7,500 to 15,000  hospitalizations   
  • increases in the number and severity of asthma attacks in about 200,000 to 1  million children who have asthma   
  • more than 750,000 middle ear infections in children

• The 2006 US Surgeon General's report reached several important conclusions:  

   
   
  • Secondhand smoke causes premature death and disease in children and in  adults who do not smoke.   
  • Children exposed to secondhand smoke are at an increased risk of sudden  infant death syndrome (SIDS), acute respiratory infections, ear problems, and  more severe asthma. Smoking by parents causes breathing (respiratory) symptoms  and slows lung growth in their children.   
  • Secondhand smoke immediately affects the heart and blood circulation in a  harmful way. It also causes heart disease and lung cancer.   
  • The scientific evidence shows that there is no "safe" level of exposure to  secondhand smoke.   
  • Many millions of Americans, both children and adults, are still exposed to  secondhand smoke in their homes and workplaces despite a great deal of progress  in tobacco control.   
  • The only way to fully protect non-smokers from exposure to secondhand smoke  indoors is to prevent all smoking in that indoor space or building. Separating  smokers from non-smokers, cleaning the air, and ventilating buildings cannot  keep non-smokers from being exposed to secondhand smoke.
• Children are especially sensitive. In the United States, 21 million, or 35% of  children live in homes where residents or visitors smoke in the home on a  regular basis. About 50% to 75% of children in the United States have detectable  levels of cotinine, the breakdown product of nicotine, in their blood.

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•  High school students who smoke 19.1% (48,100) Male high school students who use smokeless or spit tobacco 18.8% (females use much lower) Kids (under 18) who become new daily smokers each year 7,300 Kids exposed to secondhand smoke at home 240,000 Packs of cigarettes bought or smoked by kids each year 9.7 million Adults in South Carolina who smoke 21.9% (718,600)
•  Annual health care costs in South Carolina directly  caused by smoking $1.09 billion - Portion covered by the state Medicaid program $393 million Residents' state & federal tax burden from smoking-caused  government expenditures $578 per household Smoking-caused productivity losses in South Carolina $1.83 billion
•  Annual tobacco industry marketing expenditures  nationwide $13.4 billion Estimated portion spent for South Carolina marketing each  year $280.3 million
• kids are twice as sensitive to tobacco advertising than adults and are more  likely to be influenced to smoke by cigarette marketing than by peer pressure,  and that one-third of underage experimentation with smoking is attributable to  tobacco company advertising.

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• South Carolina's lowest-in-the-nation cigarette tax.

• South Carolina's cigarette tax is a meager seven-cents a pack, and hasn't  been raised in more than 30 years. The national average tax is more than $1, and  the cigarette taxes imposed by North Carolina and Georgia are about five times  that of this state.

• The S.C. House -- aided by Gov. Mark Sanford's veto -- killed a 50-cent per  pack cigarette tax increase designed to expand health care coverage for  low-income residents.

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