Each year more than 400,000 people in the US, and over three million around the world, die from tobacco-related illnesses. This project presents just a few of the many people who have shared their photos and stories with hopes of preventing the tobacco industry from spreading the pain to the next generation.
INFACT began the Human Toll of Tobacco
Photo Project in response to Congressional
testimony by a former RJR Nabisco
executive that the people who die
each year from tobacco are just
"computer-generated numbers."
The Project is a collection of photos and stories of people who are suffering or have died from tobacco-related illnesses. Photos have come in from all over the world, and are now part of a powerful banner entitled "The Human Toll of Tobacco." These photos graphically demonstrate the human suffering and loss of life caused by the tobacco industry. The Banner made its memorable debut at the Philip Morris Annual Meeting in the Spring of 1995. The Banner is available for public events around the country to call on tobacco industry leaders and their political allies to stop this preventable epidemic.
INFACT invites you to send photographs of loved ones who are suffering from or have died from tobacco-related illnesses to be part of this project. Contact INFACT to arrange a display of the Banner in your community.
Jim of Connecticut
Linda of Texas
"I lost my husband Tony to lung cancer.
He was 37 and had smoked since he was 15
years old. He left behind three children,
ages 8, 7 and 7 months. It is not a
matter of choice. It is a matter of
honesty and integrity. It is a matter
of who knew what and when it was known.
It is a matter of money talking,
Michael with daughter Debbie.
Boise of Florida has lung cancer.
Joe of Oklahoma has end-stage
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smoking at age 15,
and died from
lung cancer at age 47.
died from a tobacco-related illness.
with his wife Judy and son,
Scott.
He died at age 50 from lung cancer.
Ynette's grandfather,
dying from lung cancer.
More than 3000 teens in the US,
and thousands more worldwide, become regular
smokers every day. The average age of the
tobacco industry's
new customers is 14.
Bill of Florida on his
75th birthday and the
wedding
day of his daughter, Donna.
with grandchildren
less than three months before he died
from emphysema.
He smoked Camel cigarettes.
age
14 and died at age 59.
started smoking at 12.
She died at age 47, leaving behind a
husband,
daughter, and new grandbaby.
She thought smoking would make her thin.
and money killing."
- Audrey of Massachusetts.
daughter Susan, died in 1992.
"This is my father and me in
1993. My father was a chain smoker
for over 30 years before he died
from cancer in 1994. He was
52. He was so addicted to cigarettes
was not enough to make him quit."
The tobacco industry, led by
Philip Morris and RJR Nabisco, has
invested more than $17 million in
political contributions over the
past decade to assure tobacco remains the least regulated consumer product in the US.
Now
my baby will never know its grandmother."
"My parents were hard-working people
who didn't enjoy their retirement
years, and had few of them,
because of smoking-related disease.
My father died of emphysema,
my
mother died of lung cancer.
We got to watch them die."
emphysema at age 64.
heart disease, leaving behind
his infant son Oliver.
Tobacco Industry Campaign
