Teens and Tobacco

Prevalence of Teen Smoking

Did you know that in 2005, 81.6% of teens in Timiskaming did not smoke? That’s definitely the majority of teens¹!  Some more facts about teens and tobacco in Timiskaming in 2005¹:

• 18.4% of high school students are current smokers - that’s 1 in every 5
• 47.9% first tried smoking between the ages of 12 and 14
• 27.5% first tried smoking at the age of 11 or younger – that’s grade 6 or less!
• 75.8% had plans to or were attempting to quit
• 4.5% use chew tobacco
• 52.2% report that at least 1 member of their family smokes
• 78.8% of participating students say that cigarettes are easy to get

Did you know that youth smokers make more attempts to quit smoking than adult smokers² ? Every quit attempt gets you closer to your smoke-free goal, so keep trying and see our Want to Quit page for where to get help and handy tips.   

Tobacco Companies are Targetting Teens

One smoker, on average, is worth $40,000 to the tobacco company over that person’s lifetime². The problem is that smokers quit or die, and tobacco companies need replacement smokers.  The best replacements are teens. Tobacco companies use many strategies to target teens, and they spend a lot of money doing it. In 1998, Canadian tobacco companies spent an estimated $32 million on advertising².

Teens need to know how tobacco companies target them and fight back!

• http://www.thetruth.com/ –Youth site to portray the dangers of tobacco and exposes the tobacco companies
• L’industrie du tabac au Canada – contains tobacco industry information (French only)
• Exposé –  is a student-led anti-tobacco industry campaign with the primary focus of exposing tobacco industry tactics.
• The Power of One/The Power of Many – A tobacco action plan for youth
• The Industry – How tobacco Marketing makes us sick - Tobacco Industry facts - Links to Cool Teen Sites on Tobacco
• http://www.lostjaw.ca/ A youth site for smokeless tobacco.
• ourbodiesourselves.org – Information about women and smoking, and how tobacco companies target women
• Youth Against Tobacco In Timiskaming - a youth group here in Timiskaming that advocates against tobacco.

WebPage References

² The Canadian Lung Association, http://www.lung.ca/ Date accessed: Oct 11, 2007