Believe it or not: smoking cigarettes can cause serious damage to your health right now and in the near future... not just 40 years down the line. In "Smoking: The Truth Unfiltered", supermodel Tyra Banks joins In the Mix as we burn down common misconceptions and light up the hard truth about the physical effects of tobacco.
[Current stats about teens and smoking]

Smoking prevention is an issue about which Banks feels a passionate and personal connection-her grandmother began smoking at thirteen, and died of lung cancer at fifty. She is joined by In the Mix reporters, including nineteen-year-old Andrea, a regular smoker, who sets out to get the truth about how her habit is affecting her health.
[What's your point-of-view on the issue?] After a pulmonary test with her doctor and a visit to Dr. William Cahan of Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital, who uses a "Smoky Sue" doll to demonstrate how much tar coats the lungs after just a few cigarettes, the graphic details and hard facts are clear: smoking is damaging Andrea's health today – not just years down the road, as many teens believe. [Get and give advice] Andrea also gets the facts behind other common smoking fictions, learning that "light" and "natural" cigarettes are just as harmful as regular ones, and that a few cigarettes a day can get you addicted.

"Smoking: The Truth Unfiltered" also meets the faces of addiction. First, a twenty-six-year-old woman describes how she started smoking at ten years old to "look older"; she got her wish, thanks to the lifelong drugs she'll have to take to treat her emphysema. Then, a former Lucky Strike cigarette model who now suffers from throat and lung cancer offers insight on the difference between cigarette ad images and real life.

Determined to quit smoking, Andrea sits in with a group of high school teens who are kicking the habit. They outline how and why they got addicted, give coping tips and tricks that work for them, and voice their opinions on the relationship between teens and tobacco companies. "You're paying them to kill you," says one. Another non-smoker vows, "I'm not going to give them the satisfaction of addicting one more customer." Dr. Jamie Ostroff of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center describes how teens can tell that they're addicted, and provides additional advice on how to quit.
[More from Dr. Ostroff]

Through an interview with Bill Novelli, President of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, the program also investigates how and why tobacco companies target teen consumers, including campaigns for spit tobacco. [Cast your vote on family members who smoke] Novelli urges young people to get involved and help fight back; a group of teen activists and peer educators featured on the program did just that, providing testimony that helped ban cigarette billboards within one-thousand feet of New York City schools. We'll also hear from young singer-songwriter Leslie Nuchow, who refused to be part of a CD produced and marketed by a tobacco company-a promotion designed to help sell smoking to young, female music fans. Patrick Reynolds, grandson of tobacco magnate R.J. Reynolds, reveals that cigarette packaging doesn't list ingredients because they include many known poisons. [Great resources] [Get help 24/7]

"Smoking: The Truth Unfiltered" is regularly re-broadcast on PBS affiliates across the country. Please check our schedule and station list for airtimes.

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