[ PIRG's Consumer Program | Smokefree Environment Campaign ] 

TOBACCO FACTS
 TOBACCO KILLS TEENAGERS WHY SINGLE OUT TOBACCO? DEATH FACTS PIRG'S PLATFORM TEEN SMOKING FACTS WHO PAYS, WHEN YOU SMOKE? THE TOBACCO INDUSTRY AND YOUTH 
TOBACCO INDUSTRY CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS 

Introduction: TOBACCO KILLS TEENAGERS

Every day, 3,000 teenagers smoke their first cigarette. And smoking rates are on the rise. Smoking kills. Smoking will kill youth smokers. Out of 1,000 20-year olds who smoke today, over their lifetimes, 12 will die in car accidents, 6 will be murdered and 500 will die from smoking-related causes. "Mortality From Smoking In Developed Countries," Imperial Cancer Research Fund, Oxford University Press, 1994. 

That's why President Clinton, in August 1994, came out strongly in favor of increased FDA regulation of tobacco. FDA Commissioner David Kessler calls the current teen smoking epidemic a "pediatric disease." 

The PIRGs have joined the Coalition On Smoking OR Health (American Cancer Society, American Lung Association and the American Heart Association) in its campaign against smoking.

Why single out tobacco?

PIRG campaigns against toxic waste dumps, pesticides, dioxin and other dangerous chemicals, yet tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death in this country and, indeed, in the world: 

Altogether, tobacco kills 434,000 Americans each year. That's more than alcohol, heroin, crack, homicide, suicide, car accidents, fires and AIDs combined.

DEATH FACTS:

• Annually, secondhand smoke kills 50,000 non-smokers from cancer and heart disease and causes 150-300,000 cases of respiratory illness in children under 18 months old. Chronic exposure to second-hand smoke causes lung function decline comparable to that suffered by light smokers (<10 cigarettes/day).
  In January 1992, the EPA designated tobacco smoke as a Class A "known human carcinogen" -- the same category as asbestos. Children are at particular risk. EPA calls tobacco smoke the deadliest chemical compound found in the typical child's environment.

PIRG'S PLATFORM:

PIRG supports tough regulation of tobacco products, including a $2 per pack increase in the tobacco tax, a ban on indoor smoking, and tough FDA federal regulation of cigarettes and other tobacco products.

 PIRG opposes legislation supported by the tobacco industry which would eliminate the FDA's authority over tobacco and make it harder to stop the teenage smoking epidemic. PIRG supports the Congressional Commitment Pledge being circulated by a bi-partisan group of members opposing the rollback of tobacco laws.

TEEN SMOKING FACTS:

SMOKING IS A PEDIATRIC DISEASE 

". . . While the epidemic of disease and death from smoking is played out in adulthood, it begins in childhood. . . . [A] person who hasn't started smoking by age 19 is unlikely to ever become a smoker. Nicotine addiction begins when most tobacco users are teenagers, so let's call this what it really is: a pediatric disease."

FDA Commissioner David Kessler, in a speech at the Columbia University School of Law, March 8, 1995.
 
 

• Most smokers begin smoking during childhood and adolescence. 
• If people do not begin to use tobacco as youngsters, they are highly unlikely to begin smoking as adults. 
• Eighty-nine percent of adult smokers began by age 18; 16 percent began by age 12; 37 percent by age 14, and 62 percent by age 16.
• Three thousand young people become regular smokers every day.
• Most of the smokers who replace those who quit or die prematurely from smoking-related disease are children or teens. Almost 1,000 of those 3,000 young smokers will die of tobacco-related disease.
• In 1993, 29.9 percent of the nation's high school seniors were current smokers (they had smoked within the past 30 days) and 19 percent smoked daily.
• Among eighth-grade students, 16.7 percent were current smokers and 8.3 percent smoked daily. Among high school seniors, 10.7 percent were using smokeless tobacco and 3.3 percent were doing so daily.
• The average teen smoker starts smoking at age 13 and becomes a daily smoker by age 14.5.
• Almost 75 percent of daily smokers in high school still smoke 7 to 9 years later, even though only 5 percent had thought they would definitely be smoking 5 years later.
• In 1992, approximately two-thirds of adolescent smokers reported that they wanted to quit smoking, and 70 percent indicated that they would not have started smoking if they could choose again.

Rates of tobacco use are rising among youth.

The latest research from the "Monitoring the Future Study" conducted by the University of Michigan and sponsored by National Institute of Drug Abuse shows a continued increase from 1991 to 1994 in smoking prevalence among teens of all ages. In 1994, 18.6 percent of eighth-graders said they had smoked in the past month, a 30 percent increase from 1991, when the figure was 14.3 percent. Nine percent of eighth-graders said they smoked daily in 1994. Among tenth-graders, 25.4 percent said they had smoked in the past thirty days in 1994, up 22 percent since 1991, and 31.2 percent of high school seniors reported smoking in the last thirty days, a 12 percent increase since 1991.

 Adolescent (ages 14-17) smoking initiation rates decreased slightly from 1980-1984, and then increased from 1985-1989, a period in which the rate of young adults and overall prevalence of smoking among adults decreased steadily. This lack of progress in decreasing smoking among youth resulted in more than 600,000 additional teenagers starting to smoke.

 Between 1970 and 1986, the use of snuff increased 15 times and the use of chewing tobacco 4 times among males aged 17-19 years.

WHO PAYS, WHEN YOU SMOKE?

The social costs of your "personal" choice to smoke: 

• Every smoker shortens his or her life expectancy by 15 years. Each year, the decision by one million youths to start smoking commits the health care system to $8.2 billion in addition medical costs over their lifetimes.
  Smoking costs the U.S. $68 billion each year, by one estimate, including health care cost increases, lost work day productivity, increased building maintenance costs and other costs. 

THE TOBACCO INDUSTRY AND YOUTH:

(1) The tobacco industry targets its advertising at youth. The industry spends $4.6 billion each year on advertising and promotion. A recent poll found that 90% of 6 year olds could identify Mickey Mouse ... and Joe Camel. 
-- 86% of teenage smokers in the U.S. smoke the 3 most heavily advertised brands: Camel, Newport and Marlboro. 

(2) The tobacco industry misleads the public and the Congress. In 1994, 7 tobacco CEOs told Congress, under oath, that nicotine was not addictive! 

(3) So the industry doesn't want kids to smoke? In 1994, in California, Philip Morris qualified an initiative to weaken the state's tough new indoor smoking law, without telling petition signers it was backed by Philip Morris. Their ads alleged that the initiative promised "tough new statewide smoking restrictions." In reality, it would have weakened current state law, thrown out over 100 stronger local ordinances and made it virtually impossible to enforce the law against sale to minors. 

No fools, the people of California overwhelmingly rejected the proposal.

Tobacco Industry Campaign Contributions

In addition to its formidable advertising budget, the tobacco industry spends millions to influence the political process. Philip Morris and other tobacco companies spent nearly $20 million in their unsuccessful effort in California's 1994 rollback inititiative.

 According to PIRG research, the tobacco industry is a leading Political Action Committee (PAC) donor to federal candidates. Our latest report documents over $10 million in contributions.