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Tobacco and vapor product facts

Tobacco and vapor product facts

School District Health Profiles

District profiles provide information on key student health indicators and their determinants including alcohol, tobacco and other drug use and secondhand smoke exposure among six school districts in King County.

  • Cardiovascular disease
    Cardiovascular disease refers to disorders of the heart and circulatory system. The latter includes the arteries that supply blood to all organs of the body and veins which return the de-oxygenated blood to the heart. Cigarette smoking, raised blood cholesterol and high blood pressure are the most firmly established, non hereditary risk factors leading to coronary heart disease.

  • Childhood health implications of second and thirdhand smoke
    There is no safe level of exposure to tobacco smoke, and prohibiting smoking during operating hours does not protected children from the residual chemicals from second and thirdhand smoke.

  • E-cigarettes and vapor products
    Electronic cigarettes are battery operated devices that deliver nicotine - the highly addictive substance in tobacco.

  • Flavored tobacco: Candy-coated addiction
    The emergence of new flavored tobacco products on the market poses a significant threat to the public's health especially Washington state youth.

  • Hookah smoking
    Many hookah smokers believe that smoking hookah is less harmful than smoking cigarettes. However, smoking tobacco from a hookah carries many of the same or greater health risks as smoking cigarettes.

  • The benefits of quitting
    When you give up smoking, your body starts going through good changes right away! Even after 20 minutes, your blood pressure drops to a normal rate for you. The temperature of your hands and feet increases to normal.

  • Secondhand smoke
    Secondhand smoke, also known as environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), is the smoke given off by the burning end of a cigarette, pipe or cigar and the smoke exhaled from smokers. It can cause illness or worsen existing health problems including cancer, respiratory infections, and asthma.

  • Smoking and cancer
    It is estimated that one in three people will develop cancer at some stage in their lives and that one in four will die from the disease. One third of all cancer related deaths are caused by smoking.

  • Smoking and mental health
    Smokers often report that smoking tobacco helps to relieve feelings of anxiety and stress. However, smokers exhibit higher levels of stress in their lives than non-smokers.

  • Smoking and reproductive health
    Women who smoke take longer to conceive. Among smokers, the chances of conceiving fall by 10-40 per cent per cycle. Men who smoke have a lower sperm count than non-smokers, and their semen contains a higher proportion of malformed sperm.

  • Smoking and respiratory health
    It is estimated that smoking causes some 440,000 premature deaths every year, of which about a quarter are from lung cancer and around one fi fth are from chronic obstructive lung disease bronchitis and emphysema.

  • Thirdhand smoke: A stealth toxin
    Have you ever gone into an empty elevator and smelled cigarette smoke or smelled like smoke after leaving a smoky room? If so, then you've experienced thirdhand smoke.

  • What's in a cigarette?
    Cigarettes look deceptively simple, consisting of paper tubes containing chopped up tobacco leaf, usually with a filter at the mouth end. In fact, they are highly engineered products, designed to deliver a steady dose of nicotine.
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