by: Jessica Emery

ALCOHOL & TOBACCO ADDICTION

ALCOHOL FACTS

• The younger you are when you start drinking, the greater your chance of becoming addicted to alcohol at some point in your life. More than 4 in 10 people who begin drinking before age 15 eventually become alcoholics.

• People who use both alcohol and drugs also are at risk for dangerous interactions between these substances. For example, a person who uses alcohol with depressants, whether these drugs are prescribed or taken illegally, is at increased risk of fatal poisoning.

• 3 million Americans over the age of 60 are alcoholics or have serious drinking issues.

• According to a study undertaken in 2002, at least 762,000 children that are born each year have been exposed to alcohol during the mother's pregnancy.

• In the United States during 2004, 16,694 deaths occurred as a result of alcohol-related motor-vehicle crashes.  This amount was roughly 39% of all traffic fatalities.  This amounts to one alcohol-related death every 31 minutes.

• The 9.6% of adult alcoholics drink 25% of the alcohol that is consumed by all adult drinkers.

• Every day in the United States more than 13,000 children and teens take their first drink.

• American youth who drinking before the of age 15 are four times more likely to become alcoholics than young people who do not drink before the age of 21.

FACTS I FOUND ABOUT ALCOHOLISM

• Every year, tobacco use kills more Americans than World War II and the Vietnam War combined. Tobacco related illnesses kill 440,000 US citizens per year.

• Tobacco use causes more than five million deaths a year. For every one person who dies from smoking, twenty more suffer a smoking related illness.

• On average, smokers die 13 to 14 years earlier than non-smokers3

Approximately 70% of smokers want to quit. About 40% try to quit every year.

TOBACCO ADDICTION

“86.8% of students who smoke nicotine at least once daily are chemically dependent under DSM IV mental

health standards”

http://www.myaddiction.com/education/articles/tobacco_statistics.html

http://www.alcohol-addiction-info.com/

WORK CITED