Tobacco Use Cessation and Prevention
Preventing tobacco use among youth is critical to ensuring healthy adults, because tobacco use and subsequent addiction most frequently take root in adolescence. Cigarette smoking is a major contributor to such conditions as heart disease; cancers of the lung, larynx, mouth, esophagus and bladder, stroke, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
More than 20 percent of all deaths in the United States are attributable to tobacco, making tobacco use the chief preventable cause of death. Teens who smoke are also more likely than nonsmokers to use alcohol, marijuana and cocaine. Colorado health advocates are very concerned about the influence of tobacco on youth because of the positive image of smoking that cigarette advertisers project to teens and because the nicotine in tobacco is so highly addictive.
Addiction symptoms include strong urges to smoke, anxiety, irritability and failure to quit- can appear within weeks or even days after occasional smoking begins. This means that the younger people are when they first try smoking, the higher their chances of becoming regular smokers and the less likely they are to quit successfully.
BEST PRACTICES
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