RACS Calls Attention to the Great American Smokeout

Source from:  Rockbridgeweekly.com 11/12/2008

On November 20, 2008, Rockbridge Area Community Services joins forces with the American Cancer Society (ACS) to mark the 32nd annual Great American Smokeout, nationally recognized as a platform to educate the public on the dangers associated with tobacco use and to encourage smokers to quit for a lifetime by starting with just one day. Wendy Morgan, RACS Prevention Coalition Facilitator explained that the idea for the Great American Smokeout grew out of a 1974 event when Lynn R. Smith, editor of the Monticello Times in Minnesota, spearheaded the state's first D-Day, or Don't Smoke Day. Previously, in 1971, Arthur P. Mullaney of Randolph, Massachusetts, had asked people to give up cigarettes for a day and donate the money they would have spent on cigarettes to a high school scholarship fund. The idea caught on, and on November 18, 1976, the California Division of the American Cancer Society succeeded in getting nearly one million smokers to quit for the day. That California event marked the first Great American Smokeout, which went nationwide in 1977. During that same year, Berkeley, California, became the first community to limit smoking in restaurants and other public places. A federal smoking ban on all interstate buses and domestic flights of six hours or less was passed in 1990. And in 1999, the Department of Justice filed suit against cigarette manufacturers, charging the industry with defrauding the public by lying about the risks of smoking. Morgan added that the landmark Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) was also passed in 1999, requiring tobacco companies to pay $206 billion to 45 states by the year 2025 to cover Medicaid costs for treating smokers. The MSA also closed the Tobacco Institute and ended cartoon advertising and tobacco billboards. In Virginia, the Virginia General Assembly established the Virginia Tobacco Settlement Foundation (VTSF) as part of the Master Settlement Agreement. The Foundation works to prevent the youth of Virginia from using tobacco products through marketing and advertising efforts, local programs, education, research, and enforcement through a competitive grant program. Rockbridge Area Community Services" Prevention Unit was a first-round recipient funding from VTSF and has been providing tobacco-related prevention services in the local schools every year since then. Dr. Kelly Shifflett, RACS" Director of Prevention Services and Public Relations has served since May 2005 as a member of the VTSF Regional Advisory Board. "RACS supports the efforts of the ACS to help people quit smoking," said Shifflett. "We also know that we need to continue to work hard to get the message out to kids that smoking is dangerous and it is best never to start," Shifflett added. Morgan noted that although it's illegal for youth under the age of 18 to buy cigarettes in Virginia, most kids who smoke get their cigarettes from friends and family members, according to a study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine."Kids who smoke 2 or 3 cigarettes a day can get addicted in as short as two weeks," said Kathy Coale, one of RACS" Prevention Educators who has been providing VTSF tobacco prevention programming in the Lexington and Buena Vista Schools since the first round of VTSF funding eight years ago. "Almost all adults who smoke started as teens, many as early as age 12 or 13, so our tobacco prevention programming in the elementary schools, starting in the 2nd grade, is an essential piece of the puzzle." "As we provide programs in the schools, we find that more and more students ask us about second hand smoke," said LauraJane Wilson, RACS' Prevention Coordinator. "Kids want to know how they're being affected when someone else in their family smokes." Wilson went on to explain that children face a higher risk than adults from the negative effects of secondhand smoke, not only because a child's body is still developing physically, but also because their breathing rate is faster than that of adults. Now that many more Americans understand the dangers associated with tobacco use, cigarette smoking among adults aged 18 and older has declined by nearly half since 1965, according to ACS statistics. An estimated 46 million adults are now former smokers, and per-capita cigarette consumption is currently lower than at any point since the start of World War II. But lung cancer remains the number one cancer killer among both men and women and the ACS points out that lung cancer is not the only health risk smokers face: smoking has also been linked to increased risk for cancers of the mouth, larynx, pharynx, esophagus, kidney, bladder, pancreas, and cervix and has more recently been associated with colorectal cancer, myeloid leukemia, as well as cancers of the liver, stomach, and nasal sinuses. Smoking is also a major cause of heart disease, stroke, chronic bronchitis, and emphysema. For more information or help in quitting, contact the American Cancer Society at 1.800.ACS.2345 or www.greatamericansmokeout.org. For more information about programming RACS provides to local youth regarding tobacco use prevention, contact Kathy Coale at 540.462.6646 or kcoale@racsb.org. Enditem