New Alert!: FDA: Electronic Cigarettes Pose Risk, Contain Carcinogens and Toxic Chemicals

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Sobering Facts

• One in five deaths each year is caused by prolonged smoking.
  
• Smoking and secondhand smoke kill more people than AIDS, alcohol and drug abuse, car crashes, murders, suicides and fires combined.
  
• One in three adolescents/young adults who are "just experimenting" end up being addicted by the time they are 20 years old.
  
• Every cigarette you smoke takes away seven minutes of your life.
  
• Cigarettes contain over 4,000 chemicals and 2,000 poisons, including toxins found in nail polish remover, rat poisoning, battery acid, insecticides and rocket fuel.
  
• Underage smoking (under age 18) is not only unhealthy, it is illegal! If caught, you will pay a heavy fine- or worse.
  
• Nicotine, the main chemical in tobacco, is highly addictive; it is just as addictive as heroine or cocaine.

Related Information

• What is tobacco?
• What are the risks?
• Quittsville...Get Out Before It's Too Late
• Tips for Quitting

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Sources

More information on teens and tobacco

Interactive Health Tools:

• Are You Ready to Quit Smoking?
  
• How Does Smoking Affect Your Lifespan?
  
• How Does Smoking Increase Your Risk of Heart Attack?
  
• How Much Is Smoking Costing You?

Last reviewed March 2009.
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