Welcome to Tobacco Free Allegheny
Tobacco Free Allegheny (TFA) serves as a resource to the community, providing education about all aspects of tobacco use and the harmful effects of secondhand smoke exposure. It maintains a library of information and visual aids for loan to schools, students, and community organizations. TFA is a nonprofit corporation and a part of the statewide tobacco control program supported by the Pennsylvania Department of Health. In 2008, TFA published Pennsylvania's 100% Tobacco Free Schools Toolkit, which provides the most recent research about teens and tobacco designed for use by parents, schools, and other adults who work with adolescents. The toolkit is available free for download, registration is required.
Children exposed to secondhand smoke at home are more likely to develop ear infections and respiratory problems, including asthma and bronchitis.
Secondhand smoke contains several thousand chemicals, including 200 poisons and more than 50 chemicals that cause cancer.
It takes a person, on average, 5 to 7 tries before they quit smoking for good.
In 2010, 78.7% of Pennsylvanians were not smokers.
Lung cancer is the leading cancer killer for both men and women.
Cigarette smoking costs the United States more than $193 billion each year.
An estimated 50,000 of tobacco-related deaths are the result of secondhand smoke exposure.
Infants exposed to secondhand smoke are at greater risk for SIDS - sudden infant death syndrome.
Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States,accounting for approximately 443,000 deaths, or 1 of every 5 deaths, in the United States each year.
On average, smokers die 13 to 14 years earlier than non-smokers.