Topic

Topic: What is Tobacco?

Basic Definitions

Tobacco - dried processed leaves: the dried leaves of a plant of the nightshade family, processed primarily for smoking.

Spit Tobacco/Smokeless Tobacco - tobacco not smoked: tobacco in a form that is not smoked but used in some other way, for example, chewing tobacco and snuff.

Cigarettes - roll of shredded tobacco: a cylindrical roll of shredded tobacco leaves for smoking, with an outer covering of thin, usually white, paper

Cancer - a tumor or growth caused when cells multiply uncontrollably, destroying healthy tissue and preventing organs from working in their proper way.

carbon monoxide - colorless odorless toxic gas: a colorless odorless toxic gas formed when carbon-containing compounds or fuels are burned with insufficient air. CO

Tar – a sticky, dark mixture in tobacco smoke that causes chronic irritation. The irritation from the tar causes cancer, bronchitis, asthma and emphysema. (STRAWS) contains at least 3,500 chemicals. Other CHEMICALS

Nicotine – Is the drug found in cigarettes that makes people addicted. The earlier you begin smoking the quicker you become addicted. Nicotine constricts blood vessels which helps cause heart disease and stroke

Physical Effects

Brain- Stimulates then dulls senses – can’t think as clearly!

Throat – irritates throat causing soreness and cough and cancer

Heart – raises the HR (Heart beats faster) and increases the BP (pressure in your veins). Constricts them and they tighten. This makes it harder for the blood to get though to the rest of your body. Also weakens the heart muscles.

Pregnancy and unborn Children – Increases the chances of baby dying, being born too soon and born too small. Baby can have developmental problems.

Mouth – Dulls the taste buds and can cause gums to bleed. Tongue can get hairy and you can develop cancer of the tongue, gums and other areas of the mouth.

Lungs – Damages and destroys the lungs. Decreases the mucus supply, the movement of the cilia and O2 ability to get in to the rest of the body thru the lungs. Further displacement of O2 occurs because O2 is displaced by the CO2 from cigarette in the blood’s hemoglobin.

Stomach – Irritates the stomach lining and causes painful ulcers (a eating away of your stomach).

Kidneys – Kidneys are there to get rid of the waste products in your body. Smoking decreases the kidneys ability to get rid of the waste and waste builds up in the body.

Bones – smoking weakens the bone, softens it and makes it thinner. This means that it is easier to break.

Noticeable Effects that occur Right Away

Smell, bad breathe, hair brittle, yellow teeth and hands, poor circulation, difficulty breathing, face turns colors, faster pulse, higher blood pressure.

How to talk to adults

Tell them that you care – They should know that you are concerned for them and that their smoking affects you as well.

Ask them why they smoke – This will show them that you understand they have reasons for smoking and give you a chance to provide give them better reasons to quit!

Keep encouraging them – be positive, they need all the help and support they can get…it is difficult to quit using tobacco.

If they are not ready to quit – ask them not to smoke around you. Secondhand smoke has more toxic chemicals than inhaled by the smoker.

WHY KIDS SMOKE!

	Desire to be rebellious, make your own decisions, you want to do anything your parents and teachers tell you not to do.
	You do it because you think everyone else is doing it
	You don’t think about the future and if you do you think "that won’t happen to me"

Makes you look cool and sexy

* Smoking causes cancer, heart disease and lung diseases including

emphysema.

* Cigarettes contain over 3000 chemicals such as Acetone (nail polish remover)

Cyanide (rat poison) Nicotine (bug spray) Hydrazine (rocket fuel) and

Formaldehyde (use to preserve dead frogs for biology class) Ammonia (clean toilets)

* 3,000 kids start smoking every single day and of those 3,000, 1,000 of them will acquire a life threatening disease because of it.

* Smoking causes more deaths every year than fires, auto crashes, AIDS, alcohol, cocaine heroin, murders and suicides combined.

* Most young people who smoke are addicted to nicotine and report that they want to quit but are unable to do so.

* Kids with poorer grades and lower self-image are most likely to begin using tobacco

Everyone else is smoking so I have to too

Guess what? Not everyone else is smoking! (About 1/3 of High School Students) Anyway, since when is being a copy-cat the cool thing to do.

Cigarette advertising appears to increase young people’s risk of smoking by conveying that smoking has social benefits and that it is far more common that it really is.

Makes you look cool.

That’s what tobacco companies want you to think!

Tobacco industry loses – and therefore must replace – 2 mill. consumers each year, either because they quit smoking or die. Tobacco companies target young people because they are most receptive to the image tobacco companies portray.

Cigarette ads visually associate smoking with independence, healthfulness, adventure seeking and physical attractiveness—themes that appeal to young people. In reality smoking causes:

	Yellow teeth and fingers
	Wrinkled skin
	Hair and clothes stink
	8 out of ten guys say that they won’t date a girl who smokes and 7 out of ten girls say they won’t date a guy who smokes
	decrease in physical fitness due to not being able to breath – gain weight
	increased coughing and phlegm

Many Kids Think They Can Smoke For A While Then Stop

	66% of kids who start smoking want to quit and can’t
	Nicotine addiction makes quitting smoking as hard as quitting heroin, cocaine or alcohol.

Recent studies show that a teenager can become "addicted" (suffer from withdrawal) after smoking as few as 5 cigarettes.

Most young people who have smoked as few as 100 cigarettes in their lifetime report that they would like to quit –but can’t.