F EEL
Lil’ F.I.S.H. Club™ Headquarters
La Porte Hospital
Wellness Outreach @ The Crossing
1203 Washington Street
La Porte, IN 46350
I MPO RTAN T
S TAY
219.326.2479
e-mail: [email protected]
H EALT H Y
This Issue:
Smoking and Asthma
Smoking is bad news for everyone, but especially for kids who
have asthma. Smoking causes coughing and wheezing and
makes it hard to breathe — the same problems that happen
during an asthma flare-up.
If you add smoke to lungs that are already irritated, you have
big-time breathing trouble.
If people with asthma smoke they will probably:
• Have more asthma flare-ups
•Need more asthma medicine because it won’t work as well
•Visit the doctor and emergency room more often
•Miss fun stuff they want to do
because of asthma flare-ups
If you are around other people who smoke, just breathing in
that secondhand smoke can cause an asthma flare-up.
Many smokers wish they could quit. Quitting smoking is hard
because cigarettes contain nicotine. Nicotine is addictive.
When something is addictive, your body and mind tell you
that you need it to feel OK. If you don’t get it, you may feel sick,
stressed out or crabby.
If someone smokes around you, let them know that it makes
your asthma worse. Ask the person to not smoke in your home
or car.
If you can’t get the person to stop smoking around you, talk
with your mom, dad, or another trusted adult.
Tobacco
SMOKING
STINKS!
Even if you try your best, you still might find yourself in a smoky
situation. That’s why you should always have your rescue
medication with you!
Choose to Be — Tobacco Free
A program designed to explore and discover
a plan that will work for you!
One-on-One Coaching
Six sessions offer a unique approach to quitting tobacco use. Coaching will help the
participant explore, discover and uncover an individualized plan that will work for them!
Every single day, about 4,000 kids between the ages
of 12 and 17 start smoking.
Why do kids start? Some kids may start just because they are curious. Some
like the idea of doing something dangerous—something grownups don’t want
them to do. Others might know someone who smokes and think it is a way to
look or act like an adult.
Why is smoking so bad for you? Cigarettes and smokeless tobacco kills
hundreds of thousands of Americans every year. It’s estimated that 1,200 people
die each day due to smoking. The nicotine and other poisonous chemicals in
tobacco cause lots of diseases, like heart problems and cancer. Smokers hurt their
lungs and heart every time they light up. Smokers may feel tired and cranky
because smoking makes it more difficult for their blood to move around inside
their bodies. The longer a person smokes, the worse the damage becomes.
Wellness Outreach
@ The Crossing
1203 Washington St.
La Porte, IN
For more information,
Call: 219.326.2048
Sponsored by
Sponsored by
NON-PROFIT ORG.
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
LA PORTE, IN 46350
PERMIT NO. 127
323 PINE LAKE AVE. | PO BOX 517 | LA PORTE, IN 46352
hflaporte.org
Bad
Breath
& Yellow
Teeth
Smelly
Clothes
Hard to
Breathe
More Colds
& Coughs
Expensive
& Illegal for
kids to buy
HOW SMOKING AFFECTS KIDS
dangerous smoke
There are over 4,000 chemicals in tobacco and about
Secondhand smoke is a mixture of the smoke given
off by the burning end of a cigarette, pipe or cigar
and the smoke exhaled by a smoker.
Breathing in secondhand smoke can be as
dangerous as actually smoking. Non-smokers who
breathe in secondhand smoke take in nicotine and
other toxic chemicals just like smokers do.
200 of them are known
to cause cancer.
what is in this stuff?
Here are just some of the dangerous chemicals found in cigarettes and smokeless tobacco.
Secondhand smoke is known to cause cancer.
Each year, in the United States alone, secondhand smoke is
responsible for:
smoking stains
your teeth
smoking costs
a lot of money
smoking makes
your clothes smell
smoking makes
your nose stuffy
smoking makes it
harder to taste
your food
smoking makes your
lungs “dirty” so it is
harder to breathe
• More than 750,000 middle ear infections in children
AMMONIA
CADMIUM
HEXAMINE
nail polish remover
contains acetone,
a poison
a poison
used for
cleaning toilets
a heavy
metal used in
making batteries
used to make
barbecue
lighter fuel
DDT
HYDROGEN
CYANIDE
CARBON
MONOXIDE
STEARIC ACID
a poison used in
the gas chamber
comes from a
car’s exhaust
ACETONE
• Increases in the number and severity of asthma attacks
in about 200,000 to 1 million children who have asthma
• Up to 300,000 lung infections in children, which result in
up to 15,000 hospitalizations annually
THE DANGERS OF
SECONDHAND
SMOKE
a deadly poison
used in
bug sprays
NICOTINE
ARSENIC
the addictive drug
used to get people
hooked on tobacco
a poison used
to kill pests
and rodents
used in making
shaving lotion
and hair gel
did you know
The U.S. cigarette companies
spend more than
FORMALDEHYDE
TOULENE
used to
preserve dead
bodies
a poisonous
chemical used in
industrial cleaning
$34 million
per day
marketing their products, and they
rely on youth smokers to replace
their adult customers who quit or die.
®