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Every year on the third of November observers study the great American Smoke out, Sponsored by the American Cancer Society. The society hopes that this
will raise the awareness of smokers of all the benefits of not smoking.
Each year in America 390,000 Americans die from the effects of smoking, this is an alarming fact; one doesn’t see how people can
still smoke after hearing this (45 people die per hour), cigarette smokers have more the TWICE the chance of having a heart attack than non-smokers. Cigarette smokers also have two to four times the chance of
cardiac arrest.
From our facts we have learned that there are close to 4000 chemicals in each cigarette. Some of the ones that stick out in our
list are: nail polish remover, toilet cleaner, rat poison, lighter fluid, rechargeable batteries, alcohol, rocket fuel, gold, aluminum, silver and gasoline additive.
Second hand smoke is very dangerous and in some cases even more dangerous then even smoking! A good scenario is there are 30 people on a boat, they are all
sitting down in separate chairs in the same room, but one guy decides to cut a hole in the bottom of the boat all the others reply what are you doing and the buddy who is cutting the hole says why are you worried
its under my seat, my point is that when someone smokes in a room full of people they are all effected.
60% of cigarette substances cause cancer. This shows us that cancer kills a very large number of people each year. Statistics show that 3000 teenagers
start smoking everyday.
According to physicians, smoking teens tend to suffer more respiratory illnesses than non-smoking teens. Moreover, teens suffer from physical fitness
diseases as well.
Trying to quit smoking can be just as difficult as ending ones’ addiction to cocaine or heroin. In fact, statistics show that forty percent smoking teens
have tried to quit but were unsuccessful.
The idea of quitting is due to the following facts:
1- During this stage of life, teens become more aware of personal appearance and hygiene.
2- Not smoking appeals to this sense of vanity
3- Smokers have a distinctive odour in their clothes and hair.
4.5 million Adults smoke in this country. If this continues, the number will rise dramatically. This drives us to start and work towards a smoke-free
country, to live safely with our kids and teens.
When teens are asked “why do you smoke?” we probably hear the answers: "I just
like to smoke!" or "It's my choice to smoke." The tobacco companies have promoted the idea that smoking is a matter of personal choice. As one sees it, there really is not as much choice as they have
suggested in their ads.
Ask yourself, and be totally honest: “Am I addicted to tobacco? Am I truly making a free choice when I smoke?” You might consider that you need to have
a cigarette. As I mentioned before, addiction to nicotine is as being addicted to heroin and cocaine.
In Nicotine Anonymous' 12-Step program, which sprang from the venerable AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) program, the first step is admitting to you, "I'm powerless over tobacco." Making this admission may seem trivial to you, but for many it is a very significant part of completing the journey to becoming a non-smoker.
By telling smokers that smoking is a personal choice, the tobacco industry has helped to keep its customers in denial about the true extent of their
addiction. If smoking is a choice, then what's the rush to quit? The tobacco companies have used this spin to help keep millions of customers buying their deadly products. However, we all know that quitting is a
goal that most smokers try to achieve.
Admitting that you're smoking more out of addiction than choice will help motivate you to go on to the next steps, taking control of yourself and becoming
a non-smoker.
Now I am going to show you how one person (Dale Pray) got hooked on cigarettes.
“How I got hooked on Cigarettes
By Dale Pray
I was first exposed to cigarettes when I was in the womb. Mom was a smoker at the age of 16. She quit school and went to work in the shoe shop like many of
her peers did at that time. You didn't need an education to work, jobs were everywhere. Cigarettes were cheap and a large percentage of the population smoked. It seemed that the worst health hazard from smoking at a
young age back in that era was that perhaps it would 'stunt your growth'. Mom never grew more than 5 feet tall, most likely just a coincidence. Mom and Dad got married in Feb of 54, shortly after I was "on the
way". Folks back then were not aware of the dangers and risks associated with smoking while pregnant. So many of us smokers got our first dose of nicotine thru the umbilical cord.
From my birth in Dec of 1954 my odyssey with cigarettes began with exposure to second hand smoke. Every where you went there was someone smoking. No one
gave it a thought that perhaps the smoke filled rooms and automobiles might harm the ones that didn't smoke. Smoking just seemed to me as a normal thing for grown-ups to do. I fully expected to become a smoker
myself someday. Thanks to some candy manufacturer's, I was able to simulate smoking by buying some candy cigarettes. I was very careful to hold it between my fingers like a real one and put the filter end in
my mouth. The end you would light, if it was a real one, was dyed red to simulate the lit end. Candy cigarettes even came in the popular brands and similar styles that the real ones came in. This helped in
establishing a loyalty to a particular brand at a young age I suppose. Now that I reflect back, I seem to recall a toy cigarette that would emit simulated smoke when a kid blew through it. I guess it made me feel
good to emulate something that adults did.
I recall getting my first feeling of comfort from cigarette smoke when I was a toddler of perhaps 4 or 5 years of age. I suffered from horrendously painful
earaches. I would wake up in the middle of the night with my inner ear throbbing with pain. I remember the sound of drumming, snapping and crackling inside my ears as the drainage from the ear infection would flow
and the tissues were swelling. Inevitably I would cry out to Mom. Mom would take me in her arms and bring me to her rocking chair in the living room. She would light up a cigarette, inhale, and then very gently blow
the warm smoke into my hurting little ear. This always seemed to help relieve the pain, or at least make it bearable. After the cigarette treatment Mom would put a few warm drops of baby oil in my ear, insert a wad
of cotton and rock me until I fell asleep. An act of love and compassion from mother to child that meant a lot to me back then, but would probably not be considered a good thing to do in case of earache now.
I got my first actual puff on a real cigarette at around age 10. I recall a real boring afternoon visiting some relatives with my folks. The relatives
didn't have any children at home. They had all grown up and moved on. So there I was bored out of my gourd, when I decided I would take a nap in the car while my folks finished their visit. That’s when I noticed
an ashtray with some partially smoked butts and a cigarette lighter, right there in front of me. Curiosity got the better of me. I chose one of the longest stubs I could find, straightened out the kinks where it had
been crushed out, and put it to my lips. I pushed in the cigarette lighter handle, like I had seen mom do many times, and waited for the familiar click that signaled when the lighter was hot enough to light a cig. I
took the cherry red tip of the lighter and placed it on the end of the cigarette butt and sucked. I got a mouthful of the foul hot smoke, blew it out, and wondered what the attraction of cigarettes was supposed to
be. They tasted awful. I don't think I tried them again for several more years.
Smoking Regularly at Age 12
When I was around 12, I started delivering TV Guides to homes around town to earn some money. I would always be on the look out for bottles to cash in for
the deposit. I also got an allowance from my folks for doing chores around the house. It was great having some coin in my pocket to buy Slim Jims, popsicles and Beatle trading cards. One summer afternoon I was out
delivering my TV Guides. One of my customers had a boy a year older than I was, Jim was his name. His parents were not home, but Jim invited me in to hang out with him and his buddies. They were playing cribbage for
cigarettes. I didn't know how to play cribbage but Jim offered to teach me and even gave me a few cigarettes to get started. Well I must have had one massive case of beginners luck, because an hour or so later I was
the owner of a pile of cigarettes. I was also the owner of a brand new habit that would haunt me for many years. I was well on my way to becoming addicted to cigarettes.
I didn't inhale at first, just sucked in the smoke and blew it out. One day another of my smoking buddies asked me if I inhaled. I said no, I really didn't
realize that was part of smoking. He said to take a puff on the cig and then just breathe it back into the lungs. I tried it and choked and coughed and got dizzy like every one does when they first inhale. But I was
determined to keep it up until I could smoke with the best of them. Why didn't I take that strong hint that my body was trying to give me, that CIGARETTES ARE BAD FOR YOU. Lets face it the choke, cough and gag
reflex is a part of our bodies for a good reason. It is a body’s natural defense mechanism shouting NASTY STUFF, FOUL AIR, and UNNATURAL THING TO DO......... Yet peer pressure, wanting to be cool and do grown up
things gave me the incentive to keep on inhaling till I got it right and became thoroughly addicted to the proverbial cancer stick.
Winston’s were my cigarette of choice. I remember a childhood version of the Winston song. "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should. No flavor,
no taste, just a 30 cent waste". I used to buy Winston’s for my Mom at the neighborhood stores. So naturally I bought the same brand so as not to arise suspicion that I was the one I was buying cigarettes
for. Even back in the mid 60s it was not considered good form for a 12 or 13 year old kid to be smoking. So we would find places around town that were out of site and a kid could smoke away from the disapproving
eyes of adults. Under the bridge in the center of town or up on the railroad trestle were good spots to smoke. At any given time there was always someone there you could smoke and joke with. Sharing a cigarette was
kind of a social thing. You could always "bum a cig" if you needed one or you would give one to some one else who needed one. I very seldom had to bum, as I had my own TV Guide route, and eventually went
on to sell newspapers as well. Some of the guys used to steal their cigs, either from a store or from their parents. Of course I never did, being the darling little angel that I was.....
By the time I was 16 I had permission to smoke, as was common back then. I am sure my folks knew I had been smoking for quite some time, but now I could
smoke in the house. I didn't have to hide it, except at school. I remember sharing a cigarette with buddies in the bathroom. Some one would stand guard at the door scanning for teachers. While the other ones would
huff down a quick cigarette. You had to be quick and make every hit count, especially if your next class was way on the other end of school. I was smoking over a pack of cigs a day.
The tobacco industry loses close to 5,000 customers every day in the US alone-- including 3,500 who manage to quit and about 1,200 who die. The most
promising "replacement smokers" are young people: 90% of smokers begin before they're 21, and 60% before they're 14!”
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