SPRINGFIELD, IL – The Illinois Department of Public Health today announced the start of a new anti-tobacco advertising campaign in the Chicago metropolitan area that emphasizes the importance of quitting smoking by highlighting critical health facts related to tobacco use. The ads are featured on Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) buses and trains and on suburban Pace buses.

"Every year, 19,000 people in Illinois die from smoking and we are using these advertisements to underscore this sobering statistic and other health facts attributable to tobacco use," said Dr. John R. Lumpkin, state public health director. "Our goal is to make people aware of the consequences of tobacco use and offer them the help they need to quit."

All the ads include the Department's Illinois toll-free quit line number – 1-866-QUIT-YES (1-800-784-8937) – for those who need assistance with kicking the tobacco habit.

Several Pace buses have a photo of a hearse wrapped around the bus with a tagline that says: "Today, 52 people in Illinois will die from smoking." CTA trains have exterior ad "wraps" that feature actual pictures of lungs. Done in pairs, one entire train has a picture of a diseased lung representing the damage caused by smoking and the next train has a picture of a healthy, pink lung representing someone who does not smoke.

One interior bus and train ad details the health benefits of quitting smoking after 20 minutes (blood pressure and pulse rate drop), 8 hours (breath improves), 24 hours (chance of a heart attack decreases), 48 hours (ability to taste and smell improves), 3 days (breathing is easier), 2-3 months (lung capacity increases by up to 30 percent) and 2 years (risk of heart attack drops to near normal).

Exterior ads on buses and trains throughout the Chicago area feature the following messages:

• People in Illinois who die this year from smoking: 19,000. People who didn't have to: 19,000.
• Odds of...Dying in a car crash: 6,200 to 1. Dying from smoking: 3 to 1.
• Major organs in the body that cigarettes damage: 5. Major organs in the body: 5.
• Cigarette ingredients that cause cancer: 40. Cigarette ingredients that cause popularity: 0.
• By the time the next bus arrives, another person will have died from tobacco use.

The Department's new fact-based advertisements will appear on the interior and exterior of hundreds of CTA trains and buses and Pace buses for the next six months.

In addition to free counseling, the Department's tobacco quit line offers referrals to smoking cessation classes and a free packet of information that includes tips on working through the psychological affects of addiction.

The "Fact" advertising campaign was created by the Department in partnership with local health departments including the Chicago Department of Public Health, Cook County Department of Public Health, DuPage County Health Department, Lake County Health Department and Will County Health Department.