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Cigarettes and smokeless tobacco kill hundreds of thousands of Americans every year. You know those rubber bracelets that were created to bring attention to different causes? The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids created a red one with the number 1,200 on it. Why 1,200? That's the number of people who die each day due to smoking.

The nicotine and other poisonous chemicals in tobacco cause lots of diseases, like heart problems and some kinds of cancer. If you smoke, you hurt your lungs and heart each time you light up. It also can make it more difficult for blood to move around in the body, so smokers may feel tired and cranky. The longer you smoke, the worse the damage becomes.

Tobacco contains nicotine, a chemical that causes a tingly or good feeling - but that feeling only lasts for a little while. Nicotine is also addictive. That means that if you start to use nicotine, your body and mind will become so used to it that you'll need to have it just to feel OK