How do you feel about smoking? How do your kids feel about it? Have you talked about smoking with them?

A typical teen believes that smoking is normal and that most kids smoke, even though most kids don’t smoke. Teens who think that smoking is socially acceptable and have friends or parents who smoke are more likely to start smoking.

Before talking to your teen, get the scoop on:

• How fast kids becomes addicted to nicotine
• Why tobacco companies target kids to get hooked on tobacco

If you know the facts, your conversations may be all that it takes for your son or daughter not to smoke.

The facts:

• Once kids start smoking, they can get addicted from just a few cigarettes and feel the same withdrawal that heavier smokers already experience.
• 4,000 kids start smoking every day. Bet your kids didn’t know that!
• It only takes a few minutes for a smoker, at any age, to feel the effects of nicotine and smoking. Just a few drags on a cigarette trigger a faster heart rate, higher blood pressure, and breathing problems. And that’s just the beginning. Don’t forget about yellow teeth, mouth sores, bad breath, and gross smelling hair and clothes.
• The goal of the tobacco industry is to persuade young consumers to start smoking early. The earlier they smoke, the better chance they will be consumers for life. That’s money in the bank for Big Tobacco.
• The tobacco industry uses sneaky methods to get kids to smoke. They use persuasive advertising, free and new fruit-flavored products, and cigarette displays where your kids shop. Say, I thought they weren’t allowed to do that!
• Some kids start smoking because they don’t know how to say no.