There’s more than 4,000 chemicals in cigarettes — many that are illegal to sell individually.  Cigarettes contain everything from horse urine to mothballs and tar.

These are just a few of the facts about tobacco products that students at Newton-Conover Health Science High School are using to discourage other students from using them.

The club’s 20 student-members make up the county’s first T.R.U. Team (Tobacco Reality Unfiltered), a nationwide school program where students are trained to do tobacco education.  They go into schools and talk to peers and younger students about the health risks and side effects of smoking and help advocate for smoke-free restaurants and hangouts.

Today, they will assist with Kick Butts Day, a national day of activism empowering teens to speak up against tobacco use, at Thornton Elementary. Terrie Hall, a former smoker and laryngectomee featured in a TV ad campaign against smoking will visit the school at 1:30 p.m. to talk about the dangers of smoking and her personal battle with cancer.

Organized this year, the group of is determined to reduce the number of teenagers who use tobacco products by appealing to their age.

“We’re still young and we have more influence on them,” Awa Fayad, the club’s president, said. “If they see teens that aren’t smoking, they will realize it isn’t cool.”

Two weeks ago, Fayad said the team went to Thornton Elementary where they challenged students to come up with a drawing that would help stop smoking.  What they got were dozens of pictures of crossed out cigarettes in a circle and even poetry condemning the use of cigarettes.  She said the group plans to do more of that in the future.

T.R.U. member Melody Young has a few friends that smoke.  She’s lectured them before on the dangers of tobacco use, but the message hasn’t always gotten through.

“Now that I’ve got facts behind (the message), maybe I’ll get through to them,” she said.  “If we start influencing them now, and show them what can happen later, it will scare them out of it.”

In North Carolina 20.3 percent of high school students smoke and 13,800 people under the age of 18 will become daily smokers each year, according to the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids.

Meanwhile 22.7 percent of adults in Catawba County smoke, according to a survey conducted by Catawba County Public Health Department.  Of those, about 90 percent of them started smoking before the age of 18, Tobacco Cessation and Prevention Coordinator Jennifer Shomaker said.

Shomaker is also the organizer of T.R.U. at the Newton School and intends to expand the program to all the high schools in Catawba County over the next few years.

She said the T.R.U. Team members were taught how to use fun games, demonstrations and videos to help younger students understand why cigarettes are so dangerous.

In fact, smoking causes 87 percent of lung cancer deaths each year in the U.S., including 3,000 deaths associated with second-hand smoke, according to the National Cancer Institute.

Shomaker said the T.R.U. Team will play an important part in helping prevent kids from picking up a cigarette.

“(Younger children) really do look up to teenagers,” Shomaker said.