Facts about cigarettes

Above about cigarettes.

Cigarettes damage the body--gradually and insidiously--in a number of different ways. Over the years, the American Council on Science and Health and others have documented the effects. One popular argument the scientific community often makes to encourage smokers to quit stems from the conjecture that all of the health effects of smoking are reversible shortly after cessation, regardless of the duration or intensity of the smoking exposure. Unfortunately, this conjecture is not true. Teenagers, in particular, may be overly complacent about smoking because they believe--incorrectly--that they can smoke for a few years and then quit without suffering any long-term effects. This complacency is especially troubling in light of the recent finding, reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that teen smoking rates have increased by nearly a third within the last six years.

Teen smokers who believe that all the health hazards of cigarettes will disappear in a puff of smoke when they quit--who assume that smoking from, say, age 16 to age 28 will have no long-term effects--often fall back on an "I can always quit tomorrow" (or next month or next year) philosophy. They trust--mistakenly--that any adverse health consequences they may incur during their smoking years will disappear when, eventually, they stop lighting up. But another recent study has reported that the quitting success rate among teenagers is very low: Less than 16 percent of the 633 teen smokers in the study were able to kick the habit.