Teen smoking and kids smoking
We are in the business of selling cigarettes and cigarette sales online. We do not encourage it amongst youngsters and teenagers. In fact you cannot buy from us unless you are 21 or over.
It's an accepted fact that cigarette smoking is bad for you and bad for your health. Teenagers are tomorrows smokers. We wrote this page to get teenagers to stay away from cigarettes and the addiction of nicotine. If you are a teen smoker, you should stop right now!
As part of the 1998 state tobacco settlement, the tobacco companies promised not to "take any action, directly or indirectly, to target youth." In the two years after the settlement, tobacco industry marketing expenditures increased by 42 percent to a record $9.6 billion in 2000, according to the Federal Trade Commission. This amounts to $26 million a day to market their deadly products. The industry knows that very few people start smoking in the teenage years, and if you can "hook" a youngster early on they could well smoke your brand for life. Indeed, independent surveys show that approximately 60 per cent of smokers start by the age of 13 and fully 90 per cent before the age of 20.
Tobacco companies use advertising to manipulate both teens and adults. They present images that are hard to shake even when you know the truth. Have you ever seen a cigarette ad where people are wrinkled, middle-aged, and coughing or in the hospital dying of lung cancer? Of course not! In most ads, smokers are shown the way that teens would like to be: attractive and hip, sophisticated and elegant, or rebellious and cool.
Until relatively recently, some tobacco companies used cartoon characters like Joe Camel to market cigarettes to teens. R. J. Reynolds stopped using Joe Camel in 1997 in response to pressure from the FDA. Studies showed that Joe Camel was as recognizable to 5-year-old kids as Mickey Mouse!
Teens often start smoking because one or both parents smoke or because another close relative is a smoker. They get the message that smoking is an acceptable habit. Others smoke because it isn't acceptable in their families. These teens may think that smoking shows that they are old enough to make their own decisions.
Pier pressure is another enormous contributing factor in teen cigarette addiction! Some kids consider cool or hip to smoke and pressurize their friends to fit in with this concept. Its also a factor in teenage girls who believe it will help maintain weight or lose weight.
Recent studies have also shown that teen guys who smoke 2 packs a day could experience erectile dysfunction or impotence by the time they turn 30.
It's expensive - if you smoke a pack a day, it can cost you more than $1000 a year. (That could buy you about 75 CDs, a top-quality mountain bike, or a down payment on a car, just to name a few things!)
It makes your teeth yellow and your breath, hair, and clothes stink.
The reality is that each time you smoke a cigarette, it is costing you 5 to 20 minutes of your life. If you are a teen smoker - quit today - live tomorrow and invest in your future!
Fact File:-
- 1000 people die every day in the USA from smoking related illnesses
- Nearly 90% of all smokers started as teens and never intended to get hooked!
Center For Disease Control on Kids.
Tobacco Free Kids
Ash.org UK
Kidshealth
Smoke Free Kids
Smoking Lungs
Parenting Children who Smoke
Ash.org
Back to all about smoking
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