Tobacco causes by far the largest number of preventable deaths in the United States.
It kills more Americans than AIDS, drugs, alcohol, car accidents, homicides, suicides, and fires combined. Tobacco use among children has steadily increased over the last five years. At current rates, five million children who are now alive will die as a result of smoking. Each year, teens and children purchase over half a billion packs of cigarettes and 26 million containers of smokeless tobacco products. This is a situation in desperate need of a committed response from our faith communities.