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Youth Tobacco Facts:
- More than 50% of all smokers start smoking before the age of 14, and 90% begin by the age of 19.
- Two-thirds of men who had ev
er used smokeless tobacco reported having started before age 21.
- Teenagers are beginning to smoke at younger ages, with the age of initiation decreasing especially among girls.
- 75% of all teenagers who smoke have parents who smoke.
- 43% of American children ages 2months to 11 years live in a home with at least one smoker. (That's almost half our nation!)
- Almost everyone who smokes starts during high school.
- If adolescents can be kept tobacco-free, most will remain tobacco-free for the rest of their lives.
- Only 5% of smoking youth believe that they will be smoking 5 years later. In fact, 75% of them are still smoking 8 years later!
- 22% of male teenagers age 12 to 18 years old report using smokeless tobacco regularly.
- Each day, more than 3,000 kids become regular smokers. That's more than one million kids each year. Roughly one-third of them will eventually die from a tobacco-related disease.
- 18.7 million packs of cigarettes are sold to kids each year in NYS.
- Almost 90% of adult smokers began at or before age 18.
- Adolescents who use smokeless tobacco are more likely to smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol, and use marijuana than those who don't use.
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