Facts about tobacco use Published Nov. 6, 2007 By Kelley Suggs Health Education Program Manager MALMSTROM AIR FORCE BASE, Mont. -- Did you know... · Malmstrom loses 1.4 million dollars per year in lost productivity and extra medical care costs due to those who smoke? That is the equivalent of 37 full time jobs. · Cotinine (a nicotine metabolite and biological marker for second-hand smoke exposure) is found in the hair, saliva, and urine of children whose parents who smoke? Even if the parents smoke outside. · Children who are exposed to cigarette smoke have higher rates of prolonged bronchitis, pneumonia, asthma and are more likely to die from SIDS? · Tobacco use affects the length of time it takes to heal from something as major as a surgery and as minor as a blemish on your face and increases the likely hood of scarring? · It takes 12 years for one cigarette filter to bio-degrade? · Each day, more than 4,000 American children become regular smokers? Parents who quit smoking or chewing by the time their child is in third grade will greatly reduce the risk of their child using tobacco products. · Cigarette smoke contains polonium 210, a radioactive element? One study shows that a person who smokes 20 cigarettes, or a pack a day, receives a dose of radiation each year equivalent to about 200 chest x-rays. · Tobacco users are more likely to be affected by Post Traumatic Stress Disorder? · Every day, almost 1,200 people die from tobacco use? It isn't a nice, quite, in-your-sleep-death either. It is suffocating in your own oxygen because you can't exhale, succumbing to cancer and its treatments, having part of your face or lungs removed in order to spend just a little more time with your family. · The Great American Smoke Out is November 15th. For one day, you could reduce your child's health risks, help save the earth, and help Malmstrom retain some of its jobs. What will you choose? Want to quit? Want help? Call the HAWC at 731-4482 for more information and see the related articles on the options available.