S.D. youths need to heed smoking facts

By Jomay Steen, Journal staff | Friday, November 30, 2007

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RAPID CITY — Michelle Sauvage, health promotions coordinator of the American Cancer Society in Rapid City, noted that while 23 percent of all high school students report cigarette smoking nationwide, South Dakota’s rate of high school youth smoking is even higher.

“We start smoking a lot earlier. More youth in South Dakota are smoking compared to other states in the country,” she said.

Even if you don’t think you’re harming anyone else, the U.S. Surgeon General has concluded that breathing even a little secondhand smoke poses a risk to the health of others around you including your family, grandparents and friends, she said.

Sauvage offered some health facts from Web sites of the U.S. Surgeon General at www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/secondhandsmoke/ and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at www.cdc.gov/tobacco/secondhand_smoke/index.htm.

* Breathing secondhand smoke for even a short time can have immediate adverse effects on the cardiovascular system, interfering with the normal functioning of the heart, blood and vascular systems in ways that increase the risk of heart attack.

* Secondhand smoke causes heart disease.

* Secondhand smoke causes acute respiratory effects.

* Secondhand smoke can cause sudden infant death syndrome and other health consequences in infants and children.

* Separating smokers from nonsmokers, cleaning the air and ventilating buildings cannot eliminate secondhand smoke exposure.

* Spit tobacco contains more nicotine than cigarettes, which is as addictive as narcotic drugs like heroine or cocaine and alcohol.

* Of all mouth and throat cancers diagnosed, 75 percent are caused by tobacco; half of the people diagnosed with oral cancer survive five years after their diagnosis.

* Some of the other effects of smokeless tobacco use include addiction to nicotine, oral leukoplakia (white mouth lesions that may become cancerous), gum disease and gum recession (when the gum pulls away from the teeth).

* Spit tobacco possibly increases the risks for heart disease, diabetes and reproductive problems, which are now being studied.

* Spit tobacco use may cause your heart rate to increase and raise your risk for a heart attack or a stroke.

* A pinch of tobacco held in your mouth for 30 minutes delivers as much nicotine as three to four cigarettes.