A PROGRAM OF JUST SAY SOMETHING
They sell you flavor.
We show you what’s inside.
Vape companies and tobacco giants spend billions making poison look cool. We're done watching.
1.63M teens currently vaping • 87% use flavored products • 53% tried to quit and couldn't • $8B+ spent marketing to you • 7,000+ chemicals in a single cigarette • 480,000 Americans killed by smoking every year • Nicotine rewires the developing brain
1.63M teens currently vaping • 87% use flavored products • 53% tried to quit and couldn't • $8B+ spent marketing to you • 7,000+ chemicals in a single cigarette • 480,000 Americans killed by smoking every year • Nicotine rewires the developing brain
They gave it a name like candy. They made it taste like fruit. But underneath the marketing? Formaldehyde. Heavy metals. Chemicals you can't pronounce.
CASE #001
Watermelon Ice
“Tasted like summer. Hit like formaldehyde.”
THE FLAVOR GRAVEYARD
THE FLAVOR GRAVEYARD
Every flavor has an autopsy report.
CASE #002
Mango Burst
"Promised tropical.
Delivered toxic."
CASE #003
Strawberry Crush
"Sweet enough to kill
the question."
CASE #004
Cotton Candy
"Childhood flavor.
Adult consequences."
THE TRUTH — VAPING
What they sell you vs.
what's real.
• THEY SAY
“It's just water vapor.”
• THE TRUTH
Vaping does leave metal in your lungs.
Water vapor doesn't do that. The aerosol contains
nickel, tin, lead, and ultrafine particles that embed
deep in lung tissue.
• THEY SAY
“You can quit whenever you want.”
• THE TRUTH
53% of teen vapers tried to quit and couldn't.
One pod can contain as much nicotine as 20 cigarettes.
The teenage brain is wired to get hooked faster.
• THEY SAY
“It's just flavoring — totally safe.”
• THE TRUTH
Diacetyl. Acrolein. Formaldehyde.
These chemicals are in the "flavoring." Diacetyl causes popcorn lung. Formaldehyde is what they use to preserve dead bodies.
• THEY SAY
“No one's marketing to kids.”
• THE TRUTH
$8 billion+ in tobacco industry marketing.
Cotton Candy. Gummy Bear. Blue Razz.
They're not naming these flavors for 40-year-olds.
1.63M
U.S. teens currently vaping
(CDC / NYTS 2024)
87%
use flavored vape products
(CDC / NYTS 2024)
53%
tried to quit and failed
(Truth Initiative)
$8B+
tobacco industry marketing spend
(FTC Report)
THE TRUTH — SMOKING
Same industry.
Older playbook. Same lies.
• THEY SAY
“Hardly anyone smokes anymore. It's not really a thing.”
• THE TRUTH
Smoking still kills 480,000 Americans every year.
That's more than alcohol, car accidents, guns, and drug overdoses combined. It's the single largest cause of preventable death in the country. "Not really a thing" is doing a lot of heavy lifting.
• THEY SAY
“It's just tobacco. It's natural.”
• THE TRUTH
There are 7,000+ chemicals in a single cigarette. At least 69 cause cancer.
Arsenic. Benzene. Formaldehyde. Ammonia. Lead. Hydrogen cyanide. "Natural" stopped applying a long time ago. They engineered these things to be as addictive as possible.
• THEY SAY
“It only hurts your lungs.”
• THE TRUTH
Smoking damages nearly every organ in your body.
These chemicals are in the "flavoring." Diacetyl causes popcorn lung. Formaldehyde is what they use to preserve dead bodies.
• THEY SAY
“A few cigarettes won't hook you.”
• THE TRUTH
Nicotine is one of the most addictive substances on earth.
The teen brain is still developing until age 25. Nicotine physically changes how your brain handles stress, attention, and impulse control. A few cigarettes is how every pack-a-day smoker started.
480,000
Americans killed by
smoking every year
(CDC)
7,000+
chemicals in a
single cigarette
(American Cancer Society)
69
known cancer-causing
chemicals in cigarettes
(NCI)
41,000
tobacco industry
marketing spend
(FTC Report)
TAKE ACTION
Your air. Your move.
Knowing the truth is step one. Here's step two —
whether you're protecting your own air or fighting for your community's.
FOR TEENS
Start the Conversation
You don't need a campaign budget to change things. You need the facts and the nerve to say them out loud. We've got conversation starters, shareable stats, and ways to make your school take notice.
FOR ADULTS & COMMUNITY LEADERS
Protect Your City's Air
South Carolina has 71 smoke-free ordinances on the books. Your city could be next. We've got the data, the ordinance guide, and a template letter to your city counci..
This isn't a lecture. It's a signal.
We're not here to tell you what to do. We're here to show you what they won't. What you do next is up to you
preserveyourair.org • Partners: American Heart Association • Gibbs Cancer Center & Research Institute
American Cancer Association • American Lung Association •Just Say Something,