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Facts

Horry County
25% High school students who smoke
28% Adults who smoke

South Carolina
20% High school students who smoke
21% Adults who smoke
12.4 Million Packs of cigarettes bought or smoked by kids each year
6,100 Adults die each year from their own smoking

United States
19% High school students who smoke
18% Adults who smoke
13.4% of U.S. High school males use spit tobacco

College Students

• College students represent the highest smoking rates among all age groups
• 2 out of 5 college students intend to quit smoking within the next 30 days
• 50% of college smokers have tried unsuccessfully to quit in the previous year

Smoking-Caused Monetary Costs in South Carolina

Amounts do not include health costs caused by exposure to secondhand smoke, smoking-caused fires, spit tobacco use, or cigar and pipe smoking. Other non-health costs from tobacco use include:

• Residential and commercial property losses from smoking-caused fires (more than $500 million per year nationwide)
• Extra cleaning and maintenance costs made necessary by tobacco smoke and litter (about $4+ billion nationwide for commercial establishments alone)
• Additional productivity losses from smoking-caused work absences, smoking breaks, and on-the-job performance declines and early termination of employment caused by smoking-caused disability or illness (dollar amount listed above is just from productive work lives shortened by smoking-caused death).

Tobacco Industry Influence in South Carolina

Published research studies have found that kids are twice as sensitive to tobacco advertising than adults and are more likely to be influenced to smoke by cigarette marketing than by peer pressure, and that one-third of underage experimentation with smoking is attributable to tobacco company advertising.