Helping Friends and Family Members Quit

1. Quitting smoking is not easy, so if you know someone who wants to quit, your support can help.

2. Ask how you can be most helpful. Some people will want you to be more involved in their quitting than others.

3. Offer to have the person call you if he or she is having a craving or is stressed out.

4. Offer to check-in while the person is trying to quit.

5. Give praise and rewards – a card, dinner, or just a kind word can help people stay smoke-free.

6. Do things with the person that are non-smoking: go to a movie or take a walk together.

7. If your friend or family member is worried about weight gain, start working out together.

8. Be supportive no matter what – let the smoker know that even if he or she does not quit on the first try that you still care about them!


Starting a Club in Your School

Do you want to spread the word about the smoke-free lifestyle? Teens Against Tobacco Use (TATU) clubs are starting up all over the state. With thousands of teens already involved, the TATU movement is helping to educate teens and young children all across North Carolina and the US about the dangers of tobacco use and options for quitting smoking. TATU clubs offer an opportunity for teens to be leaders, teachers, advocates, role models, and advisors to their peers, their communities, and everyone else they come into contact with. To learn more about TATU, visit www.tatuusa.org.



Facts about Smoking….

Cigarette smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals, including: carbon monoxide (car exhaust), nicotine (pesticide), ammonia (floor cleaner), arsenic (ant poison), butane (lighter fluid), hydrogen cyanide (poison used in gas chambers), toluene (industrial solvent), DDT (insecticide), acetone (nail polish remover), cadmium (car batteries), methanol (rocket fuel), formaldehyde (used to preserve dead bodies), hydrazine (rocket fuel), vinyl chloride (PVC pipes), nitric acid (explosives), and naphthalene (moth balls).

Over three quarters of NC high school students are smoke-free.

Smoking causes more deaths than AIDS, cocaine, heroin, alcohol, fires, car accidents, murders, and suicides combined.

1 in 2 people who smoke will eventually die because of their smoking.

Tobacco contains at least 44 carcinogens (chemicals known to cause cancer).

Nicotine is more addictive than cocaine or heroin, and teens are more likely than adults to become addicted.

Over 90% of adult smokers started smoking as teens. Most believed as teens that they would be able to quit as adults.