Illinois Tobacco Free Communities Grant

Tobacco Education and Cessation Programs in Wayne County are brought to you through the Illinois Tobacco Free Communities Grant.

Smoking Fast Facts

At least 4.5 million adolescents are current smokers.

People who begin smoking at an early age are more likely to develop severe levels of nicotine addiction than those who start at a later age.

Tobacco use primarily begins in early adolescence, typically by age 16; almost all first use occurs before the time of high school graduation. Nicotine is an addictive drug, which when inhaled in cigarette smoke reaches the brain faster than drugs that enter the body intravenously. Smokers become not only physically addicted to nicotine; they also link smoking with many social activities, making smoking a difficult habit to break.

Approximately 22.3 million American women are smokers. Current female smokers aged 35 years old or older are 12 times more likely to die prematurely from lung cancer than nonsmoking females. More American women die annually from lung cancer than any other type of cancer.

Tobacco advertising plays an important role in encouraging young people to begin a lifelong addiction to smoking before they are old enough to fully understand its long-term health risk.

It is estimated that 4.5 million U.S. teenagers are cigarette smokers; 22.4 percent of high school seniors smoke on a daily basis, and approximately 90 percent of smokers begin smoking before the age of 21.

Employers have a legal right to restrict smoking in the workplace, or implement a totally smoke-free workplace policy.