What would you do if your son or daughter decided to start smoking?


Maybe your child already smokes. Perhaps you're a smoker and hope your child won't pick up your unhealthy habit. Maybe there is no history of smoking in your family, but you fear that your child's friends might serve as a bad influence.


Every day in the U.S., 1,500 kids become regular smokers, one-third of whom will die prematurely as a result. Many young people are driven to smoking through peer pressure or because they watch their parents and role models smoke.


For parents who want to quit smoking to set an example for their children, or for anyone who wants to kick the habit, one company has a unique approach that it says helps smokers quit gradually. 


Safer Smokes Inc. (www.bravosmokes.com) has created Bravo, a smoking cessation product made with lettuce leaves. It has all the characteristics of a tobacco cigarette with three key differences: no nicotine, no tobacco and none of the dangerous carcinogens derived from the additives found in commercial tobacco cigarettes.


With Bravo, smokers still get the experience of smoking a cigarette but without most of the harmful effects of tobacco cigarettes. People who use Bravo are able to eventually cleanse their bodies of nicotine. 


Tobacco use is the nation's leading preventable cause of death, killing more than 400,000 people and costing more than $180 billion in health care bills and lost productivity each year. Nearly 90 percent of all smokers start the habit by age 18.


Clinical studies have evidenced the relative safety of the Bravo product when compared to tobacco cigarettes.