A smoke & vape free VC

The Tobacco Prevention Program provides a variety of education, cessation, and enforcement services to prevent youth from beginning tobacco and electronic smoking device use, to help tobacco users quit, and to protect the public from the harmful effects of secondhand smoke.

Our goals are; to prevent non-smokers from becoming tobacco users, to assist smokers in their efforts to quit, and to protect the public from the harmful effects of tobacco and secondhand smoke. Educational materials and resource information are available, as are professional training and assistance with tobacco-related issues, including questions about smoking laws.

Stopping a New Generation from a Lifetime of Addiction

The use of vaping among youth has dramatically increased. Today, more high school students use e-cigarettes than regular cigarettes. Teens are nearly 7x more likely to vape nicotine than adults. Journal of the American Medical Association CDC

NICOTINE =
BRAIN POISON

Many tobacco companies use a highly concentrated form of nicotine called nicotine salts that’s engineered for vaping. Whether it’s regular nicotine or nicotine salts, addiction happens fast, and can lead to further substance abuse.

Types of Tobacco & Nicotine Products

Tobacco Products

Tobacco products are the only consumer products that cause death and disease when used exactly as the manufacturer intended. Nicotine is a potent and highly addictive stimulant drug found in most tobacco products.

Smokeless Tobacco

Smokeless tobacco is chewed or absorbed through the mouth or skin and can lead to nicotine addiction; cancer of the mouth, esophagus, and pancreas. Using this type of tobacco increases the risk of death from heart disease and stroke.

Electronic Smoking Devices

Electronic Smoking Devices are battery-powered devices that create an aerosol by heating a liquid. They create an aerosol (a gas containing ultra-fine particles) that contains varying levels of toxicants and heavy metals. The inhaled aerosol usually contains nicotine, flavors, glycerol, and propylene glycol.

Some Examples Include:
E-Cigarettes, Hookah Pens, Vape Pens, Mods, Heat-not-burn devices.

Tobacco's Effects & Your Health

16 million Americans have at least one disease caused by smoking. The U.S. Surgeon General says there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke. Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States.

Secondhand Smoke

Secondhand smoke is both the smoke from the burning end of a cigarette or cigar and the smoke that is exhaled by smokers. It can stay in the air long after a product is used and can be involuntarily inhaled by non-smokers. Secondhand smoke contains over 7,000 chemicals, at least 70 of which are cancer-causing. Even brief exposure to it is dangerous. It can cause lung cancer even in non-smokers and increases the risk of heart disease, stroke, and chronic lung problems.

Lungs

Smoking damages your breathing and scars lung tissue. It can cause lung disease by damaging your airways and the small air sacs (alveoli) found in your lungs. Smoking is directly responsible for nearly 90% of lung cancer deaths and 80% of deaths caused by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), including emphysema and chronic bronchitis.

Heart

The chemicals in tobacco smoke damage your heart and its vital functions. Smoking increases your risk of coronary heart disease, heart attack, high blood pressure, aneurysms, and plaque build-up in arteries among many other harmful effects. The carbon monoxide in tobacco smoke reduces the amount of oxygen in your blood. This means your heart has to pump harder to supply the body with oxygen.