Tobacco.org

Hey, smokers: Take it outside  

It's been a long countdown to Nebraska's smoke-free deadline under the Clean Indoor Air Act, but come Monday, the deadline has arrived. . . .

According to a 2005 Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids report, almost 22 percent of Nebraska high school students smoke. That equates to well over 22,000 high-school-aged kids. An additional 2,200 Nebraska children under the age of 18 become daily smokers each year.

The report states that 4.6 million packs of cigarettes are smoked by Nebraska's children each year. An average of 2,400 Nebraskans die each year from their own smoking habits and an additional 400 Nebraskans aged from infancy to adult die each year from secondhand smoke exposure.

With numbers like that and consistently changing advertising strategies from the tobacco industry, Thompson said there is still more work to do.

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