Facts & Fiction

Did you know?
Most smokers take up the habit when they are teenagers.
Many people try their first cigarette between the ages of 10 and 12.
The tobacco industry advertises to attract new young smokers all the time to make up for the loss of around 330 smokers per day in the UK alone who die from a smoking-related disease – that’s a jumbo jet full!
Children with two smoking parents are three times more likely to be regular smokers, and receive a nicotine dose the same as smoking 80 cigarettes a year.
Under-age smokers in Britain spend over £135 million a year on cigarettes.

Some common myths:
 
Smoking helps you unwind
Definitely not. Nicotine is a stimulant, so actually speeds up your bodily functions – especially your heart rate – rather than making you relax.
 
Smoking makes you sexy
Kissing someone with a mouth like an ashtray, having smoke blown in your face, and dying from lung cancer aren’t sexy.
 
Smoking helps you lose weight
Cigarettes don't keep your weight down and can even cause cellulite. Some people replace cigarettes with food when they give up and so put on a few pounds. The easiest thing is not to start smoking in the first place.
 
Smoking will help you fit in with your friends
Are they the friends you really want if you have to kill yourself to have them? Also, there are loads of other more healthy, exciting and cheaper things to do – play sport, see a movie, listen to music, or just hang around.
 
Smoking is cool
Smoking is addictive, so makes you more dependent than independent.
 
Smoking makes you look mature
Only because it gives you wrinkles, bad skin, yellow teeth and the fitness levels of someone much older.