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Fast
Facts About Smoking
- Tobacco
use among adolescents increased in the 1990s. At least
1.5 million adolescent girls (almost 35%) in the U.S.
smoke cigarettes, and every day, nearly another 3,000
young people under the age of 18 become regular smokers.
- Each day,
1,200 teens die from smoking-related illnesses.
- Teen smokers
have smaller lungs and a weaker heart than teen non-smokers.
They also get sick more often than teens who don't
smoke.
- Teens
who smoke are three times more likely than nonsmokers
to use alcohol, eight times more likely to use marijuana,
and 22 times more likely to use cocaine.
- Smoking
is associated with other risky behaviors, such as
fighting and engaging in unprotected sex.
- Teenagers,
women, and whites experience more dependence symptoms
while using the same, or fewer, number of cigarettes
than other groups, such as men, older people and nonwhites.
- Dependent
smokers are more likely to continue smoking and to
use increasingly larger amounts to sustain the nicotine
effect. Adolescents, who smoke significantly fewer
cigarettes a day than adults experience substantially
higher rates of dependence than do adults at the same
level of usage.
- Cigars
have four times as much nicotine as cigarettes. Many
teens think cigars are safe alternatives to cigarettes
since they are puffed and not inhaled, but the smoke
does get into the lungs.
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