OUGD405
Information Design
Content Research 

The public information video 'smoker of the future' doesn't include much informative facts that I could present on a leaflet as the majority of the information is fiction. So Ive decided to communicate key facts, details, figures, statistics, data and knowledge on smoking health issues but have the potential of a natural born smoker as the underlying message. The content will focus on who smokes, smoking being harmful to babies and children and smoking affecting general health. 

Who smokes?

• Each day, more than 3,200 people under 18 smoke their first cigarette, and approximately 2,100 youth and young adults become daily smokers.
•  9 out of 10 smokers start before the age of 18,  and 98% start smoking by age 26.
• 1 in 5 adults and teenagers smoke.
• In 2011, an estimated 19% of U.S. adults were cigarette smokers.
• Approximately 18% of high school students smoke cigarettes.
• In 2011, nearly 18% of high school boys were current cigar users.
•  From 1964 to 2014, the proportion of adult smokers declined from 42.0% to 18.0%.

Smoking being harmful to babies and children

• More than 100,000 of the smoking-caused deaths over the last 50 years were of babies who died from SIDS.
• More than 400,000 babies born in the U.S. every year are exposed to chemicals in cigarette smoke before birth, because their mothers smoke.
• In babies aged 18 months and younger in the United States, secondhand smoke exposure is responsible for:  Approximately 7,500–15,000 hospitalizations annually, 150,000–300,000 new cases of bronchitis and pneumonia annually

• Babies who breathe secondhand smoke are sick more often with bronchitis, pneumonia, and ear infections.

Smoking affecting general health 

• More than 16 million people already have at least one disease from smoking.
• More than 20 million Americans have died because of smoking since 1964, including approximately 2.5 million deaths due to exposure to secondhand smoke.
• 8.6 million people live with a serious illness caused by smoking.
• On average, smokers die 13 to 14 years earlier than nonsmokers.