Tobacco Free Community
The Kendall County Health Department Tobacco Free Kendall County program is funded through the Illinois Department of Public Health and seeks to accomplish four goals:
- Preventing the initiation of tobacco use among young people.
- Promoting cessation among young people and adults.
- Eliminating the exposure of non-smokers to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS).
- Identifying and eliminating the disparities related to tobacco use and its effects among different population groups.
Cigarette smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States.
- Cigarette smoking causes more than 480,000 deaths each year in the United States. This is nearly one in five deaths.
- Smoking causes more deaths each year than the following causes combined:
- Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
- Illegal drug use
- Alcohol use
- Motor vehicle injuries
- Firearm-related incidents
- More than 10 times as many U.S. citizens have died prematurely from cigarette smoking than have died in all the wars fought by the United States during its history.
- Smoking causes about 90% (or 9 out of 10) of all lung cancer deaths in men and women. More women die from lung cancer each year than from breast cancer.
- About 80% (or 8 out of 10) of all deaths from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are caused by smoking.
- Cigarette smoking increases risk for death from all causes in men and women.
- The risk of dying from cigarette smoking has increased over the last 50 years in men and women in the United States.
Centers for Disease Control
QUIT SMOKING NOW
- Quitting smoking cuts cardiovascular risks. Just 1 year after quitting smoking, your risk for a heart attack drops sharply.
- Within 2 to 5 years after quitting smoking, your risk for stroke could fall to about the same as a nonsmoker’s.
- If you quit smoking, your risks for cancers of the mouth, throat, esophagus, and bladder drop by half within 5 years.
- Ten years after you quit smoking, your risk for lung cancer drops by half.
Centers for Disease Control
Illinois Tobacco Quitline 1-866-QUIT-YES
The Illinois Tobacco Quitline is a FREE resource for tobacco users who want to quit for good. Our registered nurses, respiratory therapists, and certified tobacco-treatment counselors are on call 7 days a week, 7AM-11PM to answer all your tobacco-related questions and provide the support you need to break the habit. Habla español? We serve a diverse client base, with Spanish-speaking counselors and live translation services for more than 200 languages.
SMOKE FREE ILLINOIS
The Smoke-free Illinois Act prohibits smoking in virtually all public places and workplaces, including offices, theaters, museums, libraries, educational institutions, schools, commercial establishments, enclosed shopping centers and retail stores, restaurants, bars, private clubs and gaming facilities.
Illinois has taken this important step to protect its residents, workers and visitors from the harmful and hazardous effects of secondhand smoke. (Effective January 1, 2008)
Secondhand smoke is a mixture of the smoke given off by the burning end of tobacco products and the smoke exhaled from the lungs by smokers that contains a complex mixture of chemicals, many of which are known to cause cancer.
Individuals can file a Smoke-Free Illinois complaint by calling the Illinois Department of Public Health's toll-free complaint line at 866-973-4646 (TTY 800-547-0466, hearing impaired use only) or simply CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT YOUR COMPLAINT.
