Seventy percent of teens in North Carolina who smoke, say they wish they’d never started. (George H. Gallup International Institute, 1992)
More than 200,000 young people in North Carolina today will die prematurely because of tobacco-related illnesses.
African Americans are more likely to develop and die from lung cancer than persons of any other racial or ethnic group. The lung cancer incidence rate among African-American men is more than 50 percent higher than for White men, even though their overall exposure to cigarette smoke, the primary risk factor of lung cancer, is lower. (American Lung Association, Lung Disease Data in Culturally Diverse Communities: 2005)
The lung cancer incidence rate for African-American women is equal to that of White women, despite the fact that they smoke fewer cigarettes. (American Lung Association, Lung Disease Data in Culturally Diverse Communities: 2005)
Overall, 22 percent of African Americans smoke compared with 24 percent of Whites. Since 1950, African-American men have had considerably higher rates of cigarette smoking than White males. Yet in recent years, smoking prevalence among African-American men has been similar to that among White men. (American Lung Association, Lung Disease Data in Culturally Diverse Communities: 2005)
