Tobacco use kills almost a half million Americans annually, including 50,000 people who die each year from secondhand smoke. Among women, lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths, and has been for the past 12 years killing 70,000 women each year.

Cigarettes are the most heavily marketed consumer product in America and the only product that kills when used as intended.

The smoke of a cigarette contains more than 4000 chemicals, forty-three of which are known carcinogens.

Each day, more than 3,000 kids become regular smokers. That is more than one million kids a year. Roughly one-third of them will eventually die from a tobacco-related disease.

Eighty-five percent of kids who smoke prefer Marlboro, Camel and Newport, the three most heavily advertised brands.

In 1997, the five largest tobacco companies earned an estimated $480 million in profit from cigarettes smoked by people under the age of 18.

Each day the tobacco industry needs to replace almost 5,000 customers who either quit or die. To replace these smokers, the industry looks to sections of society that it sees as likely consumers: children, ethnic minorities, low-income populations and women.



BigTobaccoSucks.org Website. "This engaging, content-rich, Flash site is the inaugural project for the Campaign Against Transnational Tobacco. The charter of the campaign is to mobilize college students to use the investment power of their universities to challenge the global tobacco industryÕs violation of human rights, public health and the environment."

TheTruth.com Website. "Dedicated to exposing the truth about tobacco so that people can take control and make fully informed decisions for themselves."

Foothill College Library. Use the closest source at hand. There are books, videos, periodicals and other sources of information right on campus. More importantly, the support and experience of the resource librarians can be of help. Don't be shy; ask them for a hand in your research.

Youth Media Network. A statewide project of the California Department of Health Services. YMN encourages students to use the "Power of Communication" and their own creative talents to create healthy, tobacco-free messages using information downloaded from the YMN web site.

American Legacy Foundation. "Fighting For a Tobacco Free Future". The American Legacy Foundation (Legacy) is a national, independent, public health foundation committed to working with other organizations that are interested in decreasing the use of tobacco by Americans.

American Lung Association of Santa Clara-San Benito Counties. When You Can't Breath, Nothing Else Matters.Working to prevent lung disease and promote lung health.

California's Smokers' Helpline. "A FREE service that helps people quit smoking. We're operated the UC San Diego and funded by the Department of Health Services. 1-800-NO-BUTTS."

Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Tobacco Information and Prevention source (TIPS).

Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Use their search tool to access tobacco articles.

Surgeon General's Virtual Office. "Tobacco Cessation Guidelines. New findings about the latest drugs and counseling techniques for treating tobacco use and dependence." Great quitting techniques in .pdf format for printing.

Action on Smoking and Health (ASH). "Everything For People Concerned About Smoking and Nonsmokers' Rights, Smoking Statistics, Quitting Smoking, Smoking Risks, and other Smoking information."

American Heart Association (AHA). "Fighting Heart Disease and Stroke." Use the search tool.

American Cancer Society (ACS). "No matter who you are, we can help."

American Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation. "Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights and the ANR Foundation welcome you and hope that the information you find on our site will be helpful."

Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA). "We link local and international consumer, labor, health, environment and agriculture groups into an international citizens' action network. This network challenges the global proliferation of pesticides, defends basic rights to health and environmental quality, and works to insure the transition to a just and viable society." Do a search on their site for tobacco-related articles.

California Department of Health Services - Tobacco Control Section (TCS) "The mission of the Tobacco Control Section is to work toward achieving a tobacco-free California, and to reduce illness and premature deaths attributable to tobacco by implementing programs to reduce tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke."

Joe Chemo. "Meet Joe Chemo, a camel who wishes he'd never smoked cigarettes. Joe is having trouble feeling COOL these days, now that he's lost most of his hair. Worst of all, Joe just realized that he's been MaNiPuLaTeD all his life by tobacco companies. Poor guy."

You can participate in local, state and national politics by simply sending messages to the people "in charge". It is easy to be an activist with the help of the Internet. Sign up to advocate the easy way over the Internet by going to www.californialung.org and lungaction.org and join the campaign. It is as easy as adding your name to form letters and pushing "send". When your Representatives in Sacramento or Washington D.C. receive a number of faxes, letters and emails on an issue they listen. Take action; it's easy.

Join the American Lung Association of California Advocacy Network.

Take action and send an email at lungaction.org.



We need to give credit where credit is due.

Santa Clara County Public Health Department's Tobacco Prevention and Education Program is funding our W.A.V.E. /See Through the Smoke project with a generous grant as well as offering technical support. Thank you to Richard Nichols, Francis Capili and David O'Neill. 408.793.6424.

Naomi Kitajima, Health Services Coordinator of Foothill College, is the creator of this entire project. Her energy and enthusiasm gave rise to this innovative and service-oriented program.

The American Lung Association of Santa Clara-San Benito Counties is always helpful. Many of the facts and tips found on this site were taken from the ALA's rich library of materials. Dennis Acha is at dennis@lungsrus.org or 408.998.5864.

The creative and professional people at the Marketing and PR Department at Foothill have donated their time and expertise to this project

TheTruth.com has been an inspiration for much of this site.

All 2003 video photographed and edited by Cyrus Amini. All 2001-2002 video photographed and edited by Jeff MacDonnell jeffmacdonell@hotmail.com. Their talent, creativity and technical competence are invaluable.

"Cigarettes, like other enjoyable things --- like eating Twinkies, may be habit forming."

R.J. Reynolds CEO James W. Johnston

Funding provided by
Santa Clara County Public Health Dept. Tobacco Prevention and Education Program and the Tobacco Control Coalition

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