Face the Faces

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.


Photo

Diane (left) of Ohio began
smoking at age 15, and died from
lung cancer at age 47.

Photo

Audrey Mae of Mississippi
died from a tobacco-related illness.

Photo

Bryan of California
with his wife Judy and son, Scott.
He died at age 50 from lung cancer.

Photo

Johnnie of California,
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.


Photo Bill of Florida on his
75th birthday and the wedding
day of his daughter, Donna.

Photo

Jim of Connecticut
with grandchildren less than three months before he died from emphysema.
He smoked Camel cigarettes.

Photo

Ed of Oregon began smoking at
age 14 and died at age 59.

Photo

Linda of Texas
started smoking at 12.
She died at age 47, leaving behind a husband,
daughter, and new grandbaby.
She thought smoking would make her thin.


"It is our intention to defend our industry... as briskly as we possibly can, as strenuously as we possibly can." - Geoffrey Bible, CEO, Philip Morris


Photo

"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,
and money killing."
- Audrey of Massachusetts.

Photo

Katherine (right), pictured with her
daughter Susan, died in 1992.

Photo

Michael with daughter Debbie.
"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

that being diagnosed with cancer
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.


Photo

Ruthi's mom died at age 57 in North Carolina. "The last time I saw my mother she asked when I was going to have a baby.
Now my baby will never know its grandmother."


Photo

Harry and Viola of Massachusetts.
"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."

Photo

Boise of Florida has lung cancer.

Photo

Josephine of New York died from emphysema after watching her son die of lung cancer at age 50. Before she died, she wrote: "I inhaled and felt my breathing shut down. I must have passed out on the floor. I stopped that day, but the emphysema had already progressed so far that I would spend the time I had left tied to an oxygen hose. If only I could have the years back to change it all."

Photo

Joe of Oklahoma has end-stage
emphysema at age 64.

Photo

Michael of Oregon died of
heart disease, leaving behind
his infant son Oliver.


Photo

"The man in the picture was my father. He died of lung cancer at age 71. These children were deprived of having a loving grandfather, all because he could not beat an addiction to a substance he started using at age 13. Watching my father die of such a cruel disease and not being able to help him was the hardest thing I ever had to do. I will never accept the fact that he was taken away from us prematurely, and I will put every effort into stopping the tobacco industry from taking any more young lives." - Henrietta of Colorado

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