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Excerpts from: A Smoking Gun

www.cooperfitness.com  [2002]
 Source: UT Southwestern Medical Center
 
You probably already know that smoking shortens your life. Do you know how much?

Every cigarette you smoke shortens your lifespan by about 11 minutes. That's according to British researchers who calculated the effect of a lifetime of smoking, then the number of cigarettes generally smoked in a lifetime. The average came out to 11 minutes. That may not seem like a lot of time, but think of it this way: If you smoke only five cigarettes today, you've shortened your life by almost an hour. A carton a day equals about a day and a half.

Unfortunately, today's young people don't seem to be looking at the long term. The American Heart Association reports that smoking is on the rise among teens in the United States. During the 1990s, the number of teens who smoke rose nearly 30 percent. If the trend continues, experts believe we'll see a sharp rise in smoking-related illness in the next 20 years or so and on into the century.

Doctors at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas say this trend is alarming, especially in light of all the information we have today about the hazards of smoking. Either young people aren't getting the message or they don't believe it. Eleven minutes doesn't seem like much when you're young, but those minutes all add up. Stopping smoking is one thing you can do that is just about guaranteed to help your health.