FAQs
Sanford Location
400 W. Airport Blvd.
Sanford, FL 32773
Phone: 407.665.3184
Hours of Operation: Monday through Friday 8AM to 5 PM
Tobacco Facts and Trends
- Tobacco smoke contains over 4800 chemicals including 600 known or suspected carcinogens and over 250 toxic chemical compounds.
- The label of "light" or "low tar" tobacco products is very misleading. Cigarette manufactures put larger/more air holes in front of the filter to create a low tar/nicotine product. If you cover the holes with your fingers, you lips or even with lipstick, you will not have a low tar/nicotine product.
- There is no safe form of tobacco; none of the so-called "safer" cigarettes have been proven to be effective in reducing harm.
- A cigar the size of your index finger is the same as smoking seven cigarettes at one time.
- Smokeless tobacco is made from the trash left on the floor of the tobacco factory. This trash includes very little tobacco.
- Smokeless tobacco can have up to 6 times more nicotine when compared to the same amount of smoked tobacco.
- Smokeless tobacco, either moist snuff (dip) or chew can have up to a 40% sweetener ingredient leading to tooth decay.
- A bowl of pipe tobacco is a very abrasive product. It is the same as rubbing your gum tissue with medium grit sand paper.
- Smokeless tobacco combines with the saliva (spit) in your mouth to form two additional cancer-causing agents.
From "The Quick Series Guide to Freedom from Tobacco"
Third-hand Smoke
Most people realize that secondhand smoke is harmful, especially to children and those with chronic health problems such as heart disease and lung disease. This has led to smoking bans and clean indoor air policies. Research is now beginning to show another concern.
"Third-hand smoke" is the term given to the residual of tobacco smoke contamination that settles into the environment and stays there even after a cigarette has been extinguished. The chemical particles resulting from the burning of tobacco, including tar and nicotine, linger on clothes, hair, upholstery, drapes etc, long after the smoke has cleared from the air.
These particles are formed from more than 200 poisonous gases, many of which are cancer causing, such as cyanide, ammonia, arsenic, and polonium-210 (which is radioactive.) These chemicals are deposited on surface areas and over time can be released back into the air.
New research has found that the residuals of tobacco smoke stay in the lungs after a smoker takes the last puff of a cigarette. It can take up to 2-3 minutes before they stop exhaling the toxic products of combustion. This expelled air may also contribute to secondhand tobacco smoke and to the residual of tobacco particles that can settle in places considered smoke-free.
Most people are aware of the negative effects of visible smoke and make efforts to control the amount that non-smokers are exposed to. We are now learning that tobacco toxins can remain in the environment as Third-hand smoke long after the smoking period is over. Children seem to be at greatest risk of being affected as they inhale these particles from clothes, rugs, draperies etc.
Making the home and car totally smoke-free is the best way to protect those you love. Also, waiting 2-3 minutes after finishing a cigarette to have contact with children or return to smoke-free areas is likely to be beneficial.