Facts About Nicotine

Facts About Smoking

Smoking is an addiction. Tobacco smoke contains nicotine, a drug that is
addictive and can make it very hard, but not impossible, to quit.

Cigarette smoking is the major cause of:

• Emphysema
• Lung Cancer
• Chronic Bronchitis

Smoking costs the nation $65 billion per year in health costs and lost
productivity, that’s $ 262 per American, per year.

Nicotine is just as addictive as heroin and cocaine.

Tips to Help You Stop Smoking

1. Set a date for quitting.
2. Remove cigarettes, ashtrays, matches and lighters from your home, office, and car.
3. Keep a supply of low calorie snacks handy.
4. Spend more time in places that don’t allow smoking.
5. Plan what you will do instead of smoking.
6. Call a friend if you need help.
7. Start a money jar with the money you would normally spend on cigarettes.

Smokeless Tobacco

Smokeless tobacco comes in different forms. You may know it as chewing
tobacco or snuff.

Tobacco Addiction

• People who dip or chew often use a can of snuff or a pouch of chew every day or two.
• After using tobacco for a short time, you need another dip every 20 to 30 minutes.
• One can of snuff per day delivers as much nicotine as 60 cigarettes.

Cancer And Other Mouth Problems

• Using smokeless tobacco can cause cancer, especially in your cheeks, gums, and throat.
• But even before cancer develops, changes occur in your mouth – sometimes after only a few weeks of dipping.
• Your gums and lips can sting, crack, bleed, wrinkle, and get sores and white patches. These white patches may become cancerous.

Heart Effects

• Chewing and dipping may make you feel relaxed, but the nicotine in
tobacco causes your heart to beat faster and your blood pressure to increase.
Long-term snuff users have a 50% greater risk of developing oral cancer than
nonusers because the nicotine in tobacco contains cancer-causing agents, such as
nitrosamines.

The Smoke Around You

Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS) is a combination of side stream smoke
from the burning end of the cigarette, pipe, or cigar, and the exhaled mainstream
smoke from the smoker.

When a cigarette is not being inhaled, it burns at a lower temperature. This
leads to incomplete combustion, which creates smoke that is much dirtier than the
mainstream smoke the smoker inhales while drawing on a cigarette.

Secondhand Smoke is considered a Class A carcinogen, one that causes cancer
in humans. It contains over 4000 chemicals, at least 43 of which are known to be
carcinogenic.

Secondhand Smoke causes approximately 3000 annual cancer deaths in
healthy nonsmokers.

Secondhand Smoke increases the frequency and severity of symptoms in
100,000 to 200,000 children with asthma.

Secondhand Smoke increases the risk of developing asthma.

An EPA review of more than 30 human studies proved that nonsmokers who are
exposed to secondhand smoke face a 50% greater risk of developing lung cancer than
do nonsmokers who are not exposed.

Creating A Smoke-Free Environment

A smoke-free policy does not mean that smokers are not wanted, just that the
smoke is not invited.

Employers should protect nonsmokers from Environmental Tobacco Smoke
(ETS) by isolating smokers.

Management and labor should work together to develop appropriate nonsmoking
policies that include some of the following:

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