You've finished your homework and you're sitting in study hall, staring out the window, daydreaming of your future. You think to yourself, "I know! I'll take up smoking and develop emphysema, lung cancer and cardiovascular disease!"

Most smokers slip into the habit a little less directly. Perhaps you're sitting in a car full of kids from school when one of your classmates pulls out a pack and offers you a cigarette.

For as long as you can remember, you've heard a list of reasons not to smoke from your parents and teachers. And somewhere in the back of your mind, you suspect that it isn't the best moral decision either.

But at this moment, all the problems cigarettes may cause don't seem nearly as important to you as what this friend will think of you if you say no. You're probably a little curious, too. You light up.

Risky Choice

According to Consumer Reports, people under 18 smoke an estimated 17 billion of the 500 billion cigarettes sold each year in the U.S. It's hard to imagine why any sane person would start using a product that has such a scary warning label printed on it, but the fact is that most people start smoking between the ages of 13 and 17. To teenagers, disease and death seem remote.

Because cigarettes don't cause the kind of "high" that interferes with normal activity, smokers don't even think about the fact that they're developing a drug habit. If you worry at all about the problems cigarettes can cause, you reason, "It won't happen to me." "Besides," you say, "I can quit when I want to."

Unfortunately the old "I can quit when I want to" line is often wishful thinking. Cigarettes are highly addictive. Some studies say they're more addictive than cocaine. You may have heard people remark, "Well, you have to die of something." Yes, but your dying is meant to be the conclusion of a life well lived. It seems irresponsible to risk that life without necessity, to be reckless with your health-even for the reassurance of fitting in with the group.

Allison M. was 14 when she started smoking at summer camp. All the girls there smoked. "I thought they looked so cool," she said. She wanted that same look.

She thought she could become an "occasional" smoker-just enough to fit in with her smoking friends-with no problem. But before her senior year she was smoking a pack a day. "I don't think I could quit now," she says. "I don't want to have to go without a cigarette. I get so irritable if I can't have one when I want to." Allison has become an addict. (Her story is told in the March 1995 issue of Consumer Reports.)

How many cigarettes do you have to smoke before you become addicted? No one knows. Once the habit is formed, though, it can be very hard to break, with definite physical withdrawal symptoms. Some people who have quit still crave a cigarette years later.

The best way to avoid the cigarette habit is never to start or, if you are already smoking, to quit now.

While it may be hard to get concerned about some unpronounceable disease you might or might not get in 20 or 30 years, smoking does some other things to you that will show up much sooner-things you can see. At the same time that cigarettes are slowly ruining your health, they are also ruining your appearance.

Do you think that you were created with all that ruin in mind? It's not likely that the God who made you wants you to return damaged goodsdamaged not in transit but in unhealthy decisionmaking by the principal caretaker.

But the Marlboro Man Looks Great

One of the first places the harmful effects of cigarettes show up is in your smile. Tobacco contains substances that will stain your teeth. Dentists now have new ways to bleach tooth enamel, but after a period of time, the stains become too deep to remove. Heavy smokers have permanently yellowed teeth, and those are the lucky ones who keep their teeth!

Cigarette smoke irritates the gums, causing -a problem called periodontal disease, which loosens the teeth from the gums. Gum disease, not cavities, is the main cause of tooth loss.

To make things worse, smokers sometimes have a problem with the bones that support the teeth so that they can't even wear dentures. And these problems are just about the way your mouth looks, not to mention smoker's breath!

Cigarettes don't just wreck your smile. Smoking ages your skin.

It seems ironic that a lot of people start smoking in their teen years because they believe it makes them look mature. It certainly surprised me to discover that cigarettes make smokers look older by aging their skin prematurely.

Dr. Harry Daniell has done a study of 1,014 patients to test the effect of smoking on skin. He divided smokers and nonsmokers by age groups, sex and length of time they had smoked. "The most heavily wrinkled class in each age-sex group was composed entirely of smokers," he said. The wrinkles on smokers' skin were much deeper, longer and sharper than those of nonsmokers the same age.

I myself started smoking when I was in high school. The first few cigarettes I smoked made me dizzy and I didn't like the way the smoke made my clothes and hair smell. I only smoked with certain girlfriends who also smoked. But by college, I was smoking more. I had started dating a guy who smoked, and it was hard to be with him without "borrowing" a cigarette. By my early 20's, I was buying my own cigarettes and smoking alone. I tried several times to quit, but I would always start again within a few days.

Then I saw a picture of the condition called "smoker's skin" that really got to me. The skin of the woman in the picture looked like the skin of an elephant's leg--which may be fine for that species, but looks dreadful on humans. The day after I saw the picture, I quit.

Not only is smoker's skin deeply wrinkled, but white skin is also discolored-gray or yellow instead of pink. This is because the carbon monoxide in cigarettes bonds with oxygen and keeps it from getting to the skin cells, causing both the wrinkling and the poor color.

Although the color of white smokers' skin will improve after quitting, the wrinkles on smokers of any skin color won't. Dr. Daniell found that people who smoked heavily when they were young-even if they quit later on-still had deeper wrinkles than people who had never smoked. Smoking for as little as five years is enough to cause smoker's skin later in life.

"O.K.," you say, "so I don't have a perfect smile and my skin gets a few wrinkles. But at least if I smoke I won't have a weight problem. Right?" Wrong.

The myth of the skinny smoker has been around for years. Cigarette companies try to promote the idea that cigarettes make you thin by using slender, beautiful models in their advertising and even by the use of brand names like Virginia Slims to appeal to girls, or the rugged image of the Marlboro man to reach guys. The truth is, though, that cigarettes rob lungs of oxygen, making ruggedness a big stretch. If you smoke, it's harder to exercise normally. Weaker lungs, more coughs and worse upper-respiratory infections can be expected.

If you do happen to keep your weight down because of the appetite-suppressing effects of cigarettes, you will have poor muscle tone. You may be thin, but you won't be in good shape.

Ugly Innards

Curt started smoking when he was at a party where some of his friends were smoking. At that time he was gaining more weight than he wanted. As he struggled with his weight, he came to fear that giving up smoking would cause him to gain even more. After a while, he thought it over again. He explains, "I just started thinking why do I need to do this [smoke] when it's just boring and pointless." Besides that, Curt felt embarrassed that he had lapsed into this unhealthy habit, setting a poor example and harming others with secondhand smoke as well.

Curt determined to try to control his weight with exercise. He threw away his last pack of cigarettes, bought some modest weights and made a commitment to get in shape. He started working out and riding his bicycle. "Before, I couldn't work out. I didn't have the energy. But after I gave up cigarettes, started lifting weights and riding my bike, I started losing weight. I felt great! I didn't even think about smoking anymore."

The good news is that, like Curt, when you do quit, not only do you not have to worry about gaining a lot of weight, you may even lose. One study showed that over 30 percent of quitters gained no weight and 33 percent actually lost weight. For those ex-smokers who did gain weight, the average gain was only four pounds.

All the damage cigarettes cause on the outside are just warning signs. Smokers begin to look sick because gradually they are becoming sick inside.

The first reports about the damage cigarettes can do to health started coming out about 30 years ago. Since the surgeon general's first report on smoking in 1964, doctors have been saying that cigarettes can cause diseases like emphysema and lung cancer, as well as heart attacks and strokes. Now cigarettes are linked to a long list of other health problems as well.

Some of the minor disorders cigarettes cause are sinus problems, sore throats, chronic bronchitis, eye irritations, heartburn and indigestion. You don't have to smoke very much to begin to suffer some of these problems. You can also cause these problems in others with the smoke you exhale.

The longer you smoke, the more likely you are to experience more serious health problems. In addition to the well known link to lung cancer, research now connects cigarettes with other cancers such as cancer of the mouth, throat and larynx, kidney cancer, cancer of the pancreas, bladder cancer and cancer of the stomach. Women who smoke are much more likely to have cancer of the cervix. If you are a smoker, not only are you much more prone to frequent and serious illness, but smoking takes an average of eight years off your life.

Hard to Quit

If you're already smoking, the time to quit is now. Quitting is not easy and the longer you smoke, the harder it gets.

It was never convenient for me to quit. Every time I tried, I got so nervous, I would give in and buy a pack. Only when I saw that picture of how I would look if I kept smoking did I get disgusted and scared enough to make a real commitment. If you are hooked, these recommendations may help you quit:

1. Quit. Make a commitment to quit. Set a date and time that you are now officially a nonsmoker. Buy a calendar and record the date and time.

2. Picture. It's been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. Cigarette advertisers know this. Whether it's Joe Camel or a beautiful couple with healthy smiles, the producers of cigarette ads know how to keep pictures in front of you that make you think of smokers in a positive way.

To counteract these images, set up your own antismoking ad campaign. Hang up a picture of someone you admire who is not a smoker-a friend or a well known person, maybe an athlete you admire-and beside that picture, hang up a picture of someone with smoker's skin.

3. Pitch. Get rid of all your cigarettes. Don't keep a pack of cigarettes-or even one-where you can get to it just in case you have the urge. When you think about having a cigarette, chew gum instead. If you have friends who smoke, you may need to stay away from them for a while.

4. Move. Get involved in an athletic activity. The effect cigarettes have on your health is much more noticeable when you're trying to stay in shape. In addition, the benefits of quitting will be more obvious when you begin an exercise program. After staying away from cigarettes, you'll stop feeling out of breath and you'll have much more energy. Like Curt, you'll be less likely to have trouble with your weight.

5. Connect. Get professional help. Talk to someone whose opinion you respect. If you're having trouble quitting because of physical addiction, smokingcessation programs can help, too. To find out about such programs, call the American Cancer Society (1-800-227-2345), the American Lung Association (1-800-586-4872) or your doctor.

Your body is one of your most important tools for doing all the good you wish to accomplish in your life. Without the help of your body, how can you express your ideas, honor God and love your neighbor?

While God doesn't want you to put all your focus on physical beauty, or even on fitness, it is God's plan for you to be your healthiest, most attractive self so that you will be able to enjoy your life and fulfill God's purposes for you on this earth. It seems quite clear that part of being your best includes staying drug-free. Cigarettes are a drug-a very strong drug whose habitual use is very difficult to break.

If you've never smoked, the best way to avoid the habit is never to try that first cigarette. By planning ahead you can be prepared so that if and when a friend offers you a cigarette you can turn it down without hesitation.

Maybe you can help your friends quit, too, by sharing all the things that make smoking harmful. You do this, not out of any feeling of power or urge to sit in judgment, but out of love. With all the problems cigarettes can cause, there is now one more to add to the list: Smoking makes you ugly.

Smoking Makes You Beautiful, Thin, Popular, Mature... Advertising works by "suggestion"--makes you think a particular way about a product by associating it with certain images. Although cigarette companies deny it, the type of advertising they do shows that their target market is high-school students. So far, they're winning. While adults are quitting cigarettes in record numbers, over 95 percent of new smokers are from the under-20 population. Here are some of the messages cigarette companies give you in their ads: SMOKE—and you'll be beautiful, thin and healthy: "Newport...alive with pleasure." "Capri: There is no slimmer way to smoke." SMOKE—and you'll be admired: Kool cigarettes are, "Simply Kool, no doubt about it." Joe Camel is "Asmooth character." SMOKE—and you'll be sophisticated, mature and independent: Virginia Slims: "You've come a long way, baby." Capri cigareetes: "She's gone to Capri and she's not coming back." SMOKE——and you'll get a "free" T-shirt, baseball cap, flashlight or jacket.

Marticia McKinney is a former teacher and free-lance author who began smoking as a high-school sophomore and quit 11 years later.

Holly Menninger, 15, and Katie Menninger, 17, are both members of St. Aloysius-on-the-Ohio Parish in Sayler Park, a Cincinnati, Ohio, neighborhood. They met with the editor on a rainy May evening to critique this issue and to discuss the issue of smoking with her. Together, they posed the questions you find in this Youth Update.