TOBACCO Adult Alaskan Natives  who choose to smoke is about 39 %; some Native villages have rates as high as 60 % among adults. Passive smoking isn't just a nuisance, it's a killer. Among young people, the short-term health effects of smoking include damage to the respiratory system, addiction to nicotine, and the associated risk of other drug use. Long-term health consequences of youth smoking are reinforced by the fact that most young people who smoke regularly continue to smoke throughout adulthood.          Basketball players suffer: smoking hurts young people's physical fitness in terms of both performance and endurance.   Teens who smoke are 3 times more likely than nonsmokers to use alcohol, and 8 times more likely to use marijuana.. Secondhand smoke is a mixture of the smoke given off by the burning end of tobacco products and the smoke exhaled by smokers.         Secondhand smoke contains a mixture of more than 4,000 chemicals, more than 50 of which are known or probable human cancer-causing agents.          Secondhand smoke is associated with an increased risk for lung cancer and coronary heart disease in nonsmoking adults.         Because their lungs are not fully developed, young children are particularly susceptible to secondhand smoke. Exposure to secondhand smoke is associated with an increased risk for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), asthma, bronchitis, and pneumonia in young children. Smokeless tobacco contains 28 cancer-causing agents and it increases the risk of developing cancer of the oral cavity.  Oral health problems include a lesion of the soft tissue that consists of a white patch or plaque that cannot be scraped off and recession of the gums. Smokeless tobacco use can lead to nicotine addiction and dependence.   Adolescents who use smokeless tobacco are more likely to become cigarette smokers. Each tin of snuff delivers as much nicotine as 30 to 40 cigarettes. There is a lethal dose of nicotine in each can of spit tobacco, as well as lead (nerve poison), embalming fluid (formaldehyde), and radioactive particles. PREGNANT? Research has shown that women’s smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of pregnancy complications, premature delivery, low-birth-weight infants, stillbirth, and sudden infant death syndrome . The nicotine in cigarettes may cause constrictions in the blood vessels of the umbilical cord and uterus, thereby decreasing the amount of oxygen available to the fetus. Nicotine also may reduce the amount of blood in the fetal cardiovascular system. Nicotine is found in breast milk.