Tobacco Letter to Self
Outline
Paragraph #1 Introduction...Explain why you are writing the letter and add any personal information you may wish to tell yourself a year from now.
Paragraph #2 The Basic Facts...Explain how advertising attracts people to smoke, especially young people like you. Remind yourself that smokers are mostly "D" students; few "A" students smoke. Include a list of tobacco ingredients. Point out that more and more places, public and private are smoke-free every year.
Paragraph #3 Nonfatal Problems... Discuss ten or more of the nonfatal problems smokers face, such as...yellow teeth, cost, coughing up phlegm, etc. Explain several of these problems.
Paragraph #4 Killer Problems...Discuss the life threatening (deadly) problems of smoking including lung cancer, emphysema, heart disease and voice box cancer. You must explain what each disease is and what it does to the body
Paragraph #5 My Decision...State your personal decision about smoking and why you will say no to this addictive drug. Use a personal story if you wish.
Internet Research
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Open up the internet to the North Shore Schools Hompage (www.northshore.k12.ny.us).
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Click on Middle School.
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Click on Academic Multi-Teams.
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Click on Health.
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Click on the words Mr. Richter (Welcome to my website)
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Click on Tobacco Letter Resources
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Use these links for tobacco information
The letter one the back should be used only as a guide.
Sample Tobacco Letter
Dear Me,
I am writing this letter to tell myself of all the horrible things that can happen to me if I were to start smoking. Smokers are rarely on school teams or get A’s and B’s in achievement. Also, about every 1-minute people in America die from smoking and I don’t want to be one of those people. About 3 out of 4 people don’t smoke, but 1,200 Americans still die each day from smoking, that’s an amazing 420,000 Americans each! Also, 2-3 million people die annually worldwide.
Many people are attracted to smoking because of cigarette ads. Most ads are in magazines and build an unconscious association of smoking and strong positive role models. If I were to smoke I would also hurt other people. Secondhand smoke causes up to 300,000 lung infections in young children a year and kills about 40,000 nonsmokers each year.
Only 25% of adults still smoke. 90% of the people that do smoke get hooked before the age of 19, and most of those people start before the age of 14. The only reason people keep smoking is because nicotine is extremely addictive. Four out of five smokers say they would like to quit. Those who try to quit have to try an average of eleven times before they are successful!
There are many consequences that come with each puff of a cigarette. It gives you disgusting yellow teeth, which means you will spend more on dentist bills. Smoking causes bad breath. “Kissing a smoker is like licking an ashtray.” It makes your clothes and hair stink. The scent would never leave, and people wouldn’t want to be around you. Smoking wrecks the smell and taste of food, so you won’t be able to enjoy your favorite food. Smoking is also very expensive. If you smoke you’ll always be broke. You can also harm other people because secondhand smoke causes coughing, wheezing, colds, and asthma attacks. Chewing tobacco can cause cracked lips, white spots, sores, and bleeding in the mouth. Other problems of smoking are it damages your body, it’s almost impossible to quit, it’s a very bad habit, and various other reasons.
There are more then 20 different life threatening problems of smoking. Some of them are heart disease, emphysema, lung cancer, a stroke, voice box cancer, mouth cancer, tongue cancer, and bladder cancer. Heart disease is the number 1 killer of smokers and it is when the arteries in your heart clog up. Emphysema is when you lose the ability to take in oxygen. Millions of people have this disease and most are smokers. If it gets bad enough you may have to carry around an oxygen tank. Lung cancer is when cells grow out of control and the virus spreads throughout the body. About 160,000 people die each year from lung cancer and 90% of them are smokers. A stroke is a blood clot in brain artery. Beurger’s disease is when someone (a smoker) has poor circulation to fingers and toes and it has to be removed. Smoking causes 70% of the amputation. Voice box cancer results in loss of your voice box. Sometimes you have to get it removed and it leaves an artificial hole in your body. Mouth cancer is basically from chewing tobacco, which is not safer then smoking. Tongue cancer is a disgusting tumor that grows on your tongue. Bladder cancer is when nicotine irritates the bladder and it has to be removed. All of theses diseases are deadly so don’t smoke!
I am never going to start smoking because it is life threatening to yourself and the people around you. I would never want to put my life in danger like that. Benefits of me not smoking are that I will have 20 more years of life, I will save money (which could be better spent), and I will be able develop my basketball and cheerleading skills. My breath will be fresh, my skin will look healthier, I won’t smell, and I will not be breaking the law. There are no benefits of smoking. So, I will never smoke because I want to live a long healthy life. See you next year!
From Me
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