Thursday, March 8, 2012

A Word From Regina Benjamin, MD

Preventing Tobacco Use Among Youth and Young Adults: A Report of the Surgeon General.

More than 3.6 million kids smoke cigarettes! The fight against youth tobacco use and abuse was accelerated today by U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin, with the release of the Surgeon General’s Report, Preventing Tobacco Use Among Youth and Young Adults. This report details the scope, health consequences and influences that lead to youth tobacco use and proven strategies that prevent its use.

According to the first paragraph of the report -
Tobacco use is a pediatric epidemic, around the world as well as in the United States. Although progress has been made since the first Surgeon General’s report in 1964, too many of our youth still use tobacco. Among U.S. high school seniors, one out of four is a regular cigarette smoker (Youth Risk Behavior Survey [YRBS] 2009, Chapter 3). Because few high school smokers are able to break free from the powerful addicting effects of nicotine, about 80% will smoke into adulthood. Among those who persist in smoking, one-half will die about 13 years earlier than his or her nonsmoking peers (Fagerström 2002; Doll et al. 2004).

Source: Accept The Challenge!

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