OUTSMART THE TOBACCO INDUSTRY

Imagine that you manufacture a product that hooks most of its users, generates enormous profits, and is perfectly legal – in fact enjoys a status that is protected and encouraged by the federal and some state governments. There is only one problem – about a third of the folks who buy and use your product will be killed by it! What’s your business plan? How will you keep getting new users to replace the ones you lose?

Sounds Like Science Fiction... But It's True

You are, of course, the tobacco industry. Whether by trying to convince guys that smoking is "cool, risky, exciting" or girls that it will give them power to stay thin, hooking kids on tobacco is your main hope to continue a profitable existence. And marketing to kids – through magazine ads, promotional gift items and sponsorship of sporting events – at a cost of more than $6 billion a year, is your main approach.

Selling Death To Kids

So the tobacco makers will try - and succeed - to get kids to smoke. But what if these kids quit within a few years – will any harm be done? Surveys of adult smokers show that most want to quit, but only 3 percent actually succeed. About 75 percent of high school smokers surveyed were still smoking seven to nine years later, even though only 5 percent of them predicted that they would be. And 70 percent of teenage smokers said they WOULDN’T START if they could roll back the clock and choose again. Nicotine is one of the most addictive substances known.

So What's the Problem?

Once kids start smoking, they’re likely to continue. Is that a problem? Cigarettes taste great, right? (Yuck - well, maybe not to your kissing partner). They relax you and help you concentrate (except when you become agitated because it’s time for your next fix). Too bad if they make it hard to breathe so you can’t run fast, or give you asthma or bronchitis or sinus infections, or make you more susceptible to the flu. The dentist can clean the yellow stains off you teeth (except gum and tongue cancer doesn’t clean off easily). If you hang out with other kids who smoke they won’t notice how repulsive your hair, clothes and breath smell. And those extra wrinkles won’t start to show up for at least 10 or 20 years.

Smoking Kills More People Than AIDs

The fact is, smoking is bad for your health. It kills more people than accidents, suicides, murders, AIDS, alcohol and illegal drugs combined. Causes of death include cancers of the lung, bladder, stomach, kidney, pancreas and larynx, along with leukemia, heart attacks, strokes and emphysema. These are often slow, painful deaths. But additional disease caused by smoking – and its attendant cost to families and to society - is even more devastating.

Smoking during pregnancy can cause premature birth, miscarriage, low-birth weight, even Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Women who smoke are more likely to develop blood clots when taking birth control pills. Children of smokers cough, wheeze, have more ear infections and asthma attacks. Male smokers may develop impotence. Smokers and their families are more likely to die in fires than non-smokers.

Of course there are adult (even senior citizen) smokers who do not seem to have signs of illness. But almost all smokers cough (listen next time you are with an older relative who smokes), and their smoking ALWAYS affects the people they live with in a negative way.

How Do You Quit Smoking?

If you’re a teenage smoker who wants to quit before you develop these problems, how should you go about it?

Make the decision to quit. Just committing - for real - to change your behavior is half the battle.

Remind yourself often of your reasons for quitting – for example saving money for a car, wanting to date a new boyfriend, improving your breath, taking a new job.

Decide on a strategy - you may want to cut down gradually or choose a quit date for going cold turkey.

Alter your daily schedule to avoid the situations (like grabbing an after-school frappuccino, or hanging with smoker friends) where you usually smoke.

Find a friend to quit with you and keep encouraging each other.

Join a quit program or class. Talk to you family doctor about these.

Discuss other options (such as the smoking "patch" or nicotine gum) with your family doctor.

Don’t get discouraged if you don’t succeed on the first try - quitting smoking is hard.