Why is this important?
While smoking rates are declining nationally, the health effects of smoking remain a pressing issue to address. Every day, roughly 1,300 Americans die from smoking-related illnesses; that’s 480,000 a year. This isn’t just a national problem — the health effects of tobacco smoke disproportionately affect Western Pennsylvanians.
Quitting smoking can improve substance use recovery. Pennsylvania’s Statewide Tobacco-Free Recovery Initiative shares tobacco use can be fundamental to drug and alcohol use rituals and is associated with increased symptoms of mental illness. When in recovery from substance use disorder, learning tobacco-free coping skills can increase quality of life, and improve mental health.
Every year the World Health Organization has World No Tobacco Day and highlights different topics. World No Tobacco Day: Protect Our Health focused on ways to reduce the effects of tobacco on young people. According to the CDC, in the United States most adults who regularly use tobacco products started before the age of 18. In addition, the use of tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, is unsafe for young people.
