• In 1995, there were approximately 47 million smokers in the US. Of those, more than 80 percent said if they had to do it over again, they would not begin smoking.

• More than 80 percent of adults who have ever smoked cigarettes were introduced to them by the age 18, and more than half were already smoking regularly by that age.

• Statistics show those who start smoking at younger ages are more likely to become heavy smokers and face great barriers to quitting.

• In response to strong evidence that lifelong tobacco addiction begins during childhood and adolescence, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ruled to restrict the sale and distribution of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco to children and adolescents in February 1997.

Adolescent Smokers

• A 1996 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse profiled adolescent smokers and revealed nearly four million American adolescents currently smoke cigarettes.

• According to a Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 71 percent of high school students have tried to quit smoking.

• About one-third of high school students are current cigarette smokers, or smoked at least one cigarette in the past 30 days.

• In 1996, 22 percent of high school seniors smoked daily, an increase from 17 percent in 1992.

• White students (20 percent) are more likely than African-American (5 percent) or Hispanic students (10 percent) to smoke frequently.

Smoking Costs

• Tobacco use drained the US economy of more than $100 billion in health care costs and lost productivity in 1996, doubling from $50 million in 1993, according to the CDC publication, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).

• Of these costs, 43 percent were paid by government funds, including Medicaid and Medicare.

• Even though smokers die younger than the average American, over the course of their lives, current and former smokers generate an estimated $501 billion in excess health care costs.

• Tobacco costs Medicare more than $15 billion per year, according to Thomas Hodgson in a 1992 issue of The Milbank Quarterly.