The Need for the Center

The following points further illustrate and support the need for this nonprofit organization and its  research and education Center:

• Over 41 million people worldwide have been killed by tobacco since January 2000 – 1 every 7 seconds – and many more are stricken by debilitating cancers and heart attacks. It subjects our precious children to a long life of pain, suffering and poverty. 90% of lung cancer deaths are caused by smoking!

• Every day, in the United States alone, nearly 4,400 (over 1.5 million) kids as young as 8 years old, start smoking.

• Every year, in the USA alone, the tobacco industry spends over $15.4 billion  ($42+ million each day) marketing their deadly products, with most of it reaching children. So far this century it has spent over $105 billion and counting.

• More than 6.4 million children living today will die prematurely because of a decision they will make as adolescents to smoke cigarettes.

• 43,000 children are orphaned each year due to smoking-related deaths.

• 1 in 4, or nearly 50 million, Americans smoke and the other 250 million urgently want them to quit. That's 300 million Americans alone who need and will be using this Center and its services to help save their loved ones' health and wealth.

• Every day, 32 million American smokers desperately want to quit and need help and effective ways to quit and stay quit.

• Tragically, 1 in 5, or over 1.3 billion, people worldwide smoke and/or use tobacco daily. There is no disease or natural disaster that has cost the loss of so many lives and robbed so much wealth than tobacco use.

• Smoking is a disease-causing, expensive habit that robs all of us from our health and wealth. The average smoker costs themselves over $1,500 a year on cigarettes alone. A Duke University study puts the true cost of lifetime smoking at $40 a pack – on average, that’s about $15,000 a year over the life of a smoker. This most adversely affects poverty-stricken families by further depriving their children and families from basic necessities such as food, education and healthcare. (more)

• Smoking is no longer just about the smokers’ health, it’s also about their job. Employees who smoke cost their employers more than $9,300 in lost productivity, smoking breaks, excess medical expenditures, liability insurance and other related costs each and every year. The growing trend among employers is to go smoke free to cut costs and increase productivity while saving lives. This again most adversely affects low-income families who coincidently have the highest rate of smokers among them – thus further increasing poverty and a health crisis. (more)

• Smoking is no longer just about the smokers' health, it's also about their living quarters. More and more apartments, towns and cities are going smoke free, further complicating smokers' lives. (more)

• The smoke free public and workplace laws enacted regularly around the country, if not implemented and understood correctly, further divide our loved ones and create a second class of citizen. It is also very important to educate nonsmokers to understand their roll in supporting and helping their loved ones (smokers) to quit. The Center addresses this issue to find solutions and guidelines to help with the transition from a smoking to a nonsmoking workplace and society.

• More Americans die each year from cigarette-related illnesses than car accidents, AIDS, alcohol, suicide, homicide and illegal drugs combined!

Continue