Welcome back to the ft Tip of the Week. This week we would like to educate everyone on the effects of smoking. Working out helps you achieve a healthier lifestyle. Hard work and a proper diet are both things that we do in order to make our bodies look and feel the best they possibly can. Many people choose to smoke, even though they are trying hard to be healthy. Smoking usually begins at a young age, the same age that many people begin working out. Working out provides the looks that a teen wants, but smoking also provides the social image that they seek. This image that they are searching for is completely contradicting! Let's stay healthy, and leave smoking out of the image. We have outlined some of the negative effects of smoking below in hopes to persuade you to drop that nasty habbit, wherther you are young or old. - From 1988 to 1998, the rate of teen smoking increased by 73% according to a study done by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). - Six out of every ten U.S. smokers started smoking before age 14. Nine of every ten smokers become addicted before reaching age 19. - Tobacco smoke contains at least 43 substances that can cause cancer. Smoking causes many types of cancer, not just lung cancer. - Even if you don't inhale, whenever smoke touches living cells it does harm. Even if smokers don't inhale, including pipe and cigar smokers, they are at an increased risk for lip, mouth and tongue cancers. - Nicotine addiction is "the most widespread example of drug dependence in our country," according to the U.S. Public Health Service. - Children of smokers are more likely to become smokers themselves. - 16.6 million of today's youth will become regular smokers; almost a third (about 5 million) will die from smoking.