TOBACCO FACTS

 

Tobacco kills 440,000 people each year and is the leading cause of preventable death and disability in the United States.

 

Approximately 90 percent of adult smokers started smoking before the age of 18. Every day, nearly 4,000 young people under the age of 18 try their first cigarette.

 

Nearly 11,000 of New Jersey’s 1.15 million smokers will die this year from tobacco-related diseases.

 

Nearly 20,000 New Jersey teens become regular smokers each year.  If current trends continue, 168,000 people in New Jersey now under age 18 will die from a tobacco-related disease.

 

Almost 400,000 young people in New Jersey are exposed to secondhand smoke at home; those who live with a smoker are twice as likely to become smokers themselves.