What You(th) Should Know About Tobacco

Tobacco and Athletic Performance

Don’t get trapped. Nicotine in cigarettes, cigars, and spit tobacco is addictive.

• Nicotine narrows your blood vessels and puts added strain on your heart.
• Smoking can wreck lungs and reduce oxygen available for muscles used during sports.
• Smokers suffer shortness of breath (gasp!) almost 3 times more often than nonsmokers.
• Smokers run slower and can’t run as far, affecting overall athletic performance.
• Cigars and spit tobacco are NOT safe alternatives.

Tobacco and Personal Appearance

Yuck!

• Tobacco smoke can make hair and clothes stink.
• Tobacco stains teeth and causes bad breath.
• Short-term use of spit tobacco can cause cracked lips, white spots, sores, and bleeding in the mouth.
• Surgery to remove oral cancers caused by tobacco use can lead to serious changes in the face. Sean Marcee, a high school star athlete who used spit tobacco, died of oral cancer when he was 19 years old.

Know the truth. Despite all the tobacco use on TV and in movies, music videos, billboards and magazines---most teens, adults, and athletes DON’T use tobacco. Make friends, develop athletic skills, control weight, be independent, be cool..... play sports. Don’t waste (burn) money on tobacco. Spend it on CD’s, clothes, computer games, and movies. Get involved: make your team, school, and home tobacco-free; teach others; join community efforts to prevent tobacco use.

For more information for kids on Tobacco and Smoking check out these links:

CDC's TIPS 4 YOUTH: Tobacco Information and Prevention Source
Tobacco use remains the leading preventable cause of death in the United States. Each year, smoking kills more people than AIDS, alcohol, drug abuse, car crashes, murders, suicides, and fires---combined! Approximately 80% of adult smokers started smoking before the age of 18. Every day, nearly 3,000 young people under the age of 18 become regular smokers. More than 5 million children living today will die prematurely because of a decision they will make as adolescents---the decision to smoke cigarettes.

Sports Initiatives — Tobacco Free Sports
If current youth tobacco use trends continue, 5 million of today’s young people will die of tobacco-related diseases. Nearly all first-time use of tobacco occurs before high school graduation, which suggests that if kept tobacco-free, most youth will never start using tobacco. Many high-profile athletes and coaches have joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) tobacco-free sports movement...

Also See:
Health Effects of Secondhand Smoke in Children.