High Plains Division
American Cancer Society
Health Initiatives
TOBACCO USE PREVENTION YOUTH RESOURCE GUIDE
Contents:
Tobacco Related
I.Youth Material
- Newsletters
- Quiz/Activities
- Resources
TOBACCO RELATED
I. Youth Material
E-mail inserts
Almost 90% of adult smokers begin smoking at or before the age of 18. Approximately 3 million kids under the age of 18 are current smokers. One fifth of our children are current smokers by the time they leave high school. For information on preventing youth smoking, contact the American Cancer Society at 1-800-ACS-2345 or visit
Opportunities are coming your way these days that give you more and more power to plan your future. Leaving spit tobacco out of your life will be one of the easier ones. You can’t lose. Your smile will be bright; your breath will be clean. The extra money will be great and so will the feeling you get from knowing that you did something on your own for your own good with your own strength and determination. Decisions are hard to make sometimes and even harder to stick to. This one is worth it – it’s worth your life. For more information call the American Cancer Society at 1-800-ACS-2345 or visit
Cigarette smoking is drawing smoke, fire, and toxic substances into your lungs, for the purpose of giving the body a dose of nicotine, a highly toxic and addictive drug. If you don’t smoke, don’t start. If you smoke, quit now. For more information call the American Cancer Society at 1-800-ACS-2345 or visit
What about us? Kids of smokers have a greater chance of developing certain illnesses such as:
- Colds
- Bronchitis and pneumonia, especially during the first two years of life
- Chronic coughs, especially as kids get older
- Ear infections
- Reduced lung function
- Increasing severity of symptoms and episodes among kids with asthma
Speak up and ask the adult smokers in your life to give you a break! It’s your health we’re talking about here. For more information call the American Cancer Society at 1-800-ACS-2345 or visit
Tobacco companies deny that youth are the target of their advertising and claim that the purpose of advertising is to get smokers to change brands. Any industry which kills more than 440,000 of its best customers every year must find new customers. Are you going to be a new customer?
Newsletter
Tobacco Companies Continue to Advertise to Youth
Despite what they’ve recently been promoting, the nation’s tobacco companies continue to advertise in youth-oriented magazines, convenience stores, and other venues that reach children. In other words, television advertisements claiming that the tobacco companies now behave responsibly are quite deceptive.
Philip Morris, the nation’s largest tobacco company, has run TV ads claiming that the tobacco companies have changed and no longer market to youth as a result of the 1998 legal settlement between the states and the tobacco companies. The American Cancer Society said these ads fail to tell the real story.
Philip Morris and the other tobacco companies want the public to believe that they have changed their ways, but recent evidence indicates otherwise. Studies show that despite the settlement agreement, tobacco companies have actually increased advertising in places that reach children most. The American Cancer Society is asking for real change instead of empty rhetoric and that tobacco companies stop their deceptive advertising.
The ads by tobacco companies are simply a public relations effort to avoid the meaningful changes in business practices that would lead to a reduction in youth tobacco use. If tobacco companies were serious about change, they would immediately stop advertising in youth-oriented magazines, retail stores, and other venues that impact kids. And they would support granting the U.S. Food and Drug Administration real authority to regulate the manufacturing, marketing, and sale of tobacco products.
For information about smoking, call the American Cancer Society at 1-800-ACS-2345 or visit their web site at
Newsletter
If you think you are too small to make a difference, then you have never been in bed with a mosquito.
You can make a difference. Read the examples below about how youth, just like you, can reduce the influence of tobacco advertising.
Students from the ReaganMagnetElementary School in Odessa, Texas wrote letters to Wal-Mart about removing tobacco advertisements from their shopping baskets. In response, the Wal-Mart President and CEO have promised to remove the ads from the baskets nationwide!
Members of the Smoke-free Class of 2000 in Jackson, Mississippi set up a “Camel Chasers” school assembly at the culmination of a week of tobacco prevention activities. They invited community leaders to the event. Those attending chased a person dressed as Joe Camel out of the school where his arrest was covered by the local media.
Students in Belvedere, Illinois wrote to the publishers of popular teen magazines – such as Sports Illustrated and Hot Rod – requesting that they stop accepting tobacco advertisements. When they did not hear back, the school library canceled the subscriptions to these magazines.
For more information, contact your American Cancer Society at 1-800-ACS-2345 or visit their web site at
School – Great American Smokeout
Overview
Each day in the U.S. approximately 4000 young people between the ages of 12 and 17 years initiate cigarette smoking.
23% of high school students in the U.S. are current cigarette smokers.
In a 2006 national study, 8% of U.S. middle school students are current cigarette smokers and 23% of high school students in the U.S. are current cigarette smokers (smoked at least one cigarette in the past month).
Each year, about 3,000 nonsmoking adults die of lung cancer as a result of breathing secondhand smoke.
Secondhand smoke increases the number of asthma attacks and the severity of asthma in about 200,000 to 1 million asthmatic children.
The Great American Smokeout is held each year on the third Thursday in November. It is a nationwide event designed to educate people about the hazards of tobacco and to encourage smokers to quit.
The High Plains Division will encourage youth to make the decision to not use tobacco products and to become advocates against tobacco use in their school and community through education about the negative effects of smoking and tobacco products.
Support Materials
GASO school letter – intro*
GASO school letter – follow-up*
Activity – Growing a Healthy Me*
Activity – Word Scramble*
Activity – Up In Smoke*
Activity – Let’s Debate: A Lesson In Personal Advocacy*
“Youth Material” in the Tobacco Related section of the Prevention Resource Handbook (includes email and newsletter inserts, presentation material, list of resources)
Communication staff partners also have materials to promote GASO
* Located within this guide
GASO letter to schools – intro
November 20th, 2008 marks the American Cancer Society’s 32nd Great American Smokeout. And while tobacco cessation efforts, clean air laws and excise taxes continue to bring smoking rates down, there’s still a long way to go before tobacco loses its place as our top cancer killer.
The American Cancer Society recognizes that youth are at risk for behaviors that can promote cancer, especially smoking. We must foster healthy habits early to reduce the risk. The Great American Smokeout is held each year on the third Thursday in November. It is a nationwide event designed to educate people about the hazards of tobacco and to encourage smokers to quit. It is also a day of celebration for young people who do not smoke or who have chosen to quit smoking,
We have developed the enclosed material for your use during the Great American Smokeout. These programs are designed to help prevent young people from beginning to smoke. Nearly 90 percent of all adult smokers began smoking by the time they were 18 years old. We know that if we can stop children and teenagers from becoming addicted, they will probably remain smoke-free for life.
The following are opportunities to impact tobacco use among young people, based on available research:
Prevention programs have proven effective in the elimination of smoking.
School-based programs which identify social influences and provide skills to resist them have led to reduction in smoking onset.
Programs that focus on short-term negative consequences, including social undesirability and physiological impairment, are most effective.
Since smoking behavior develops along a series of stages that begins when students are in 6th grade, smoking prevention needs to be initiated earlier than high school.
Staying smoke-free in school probably means a person will never start.
Feel free to copy and distribute the enclosed material. Please share this information with others and use these activities in your school to complement your tobacco education curriculum. Great American Smokeout activities are fun promotions that can help increase young people’s awareness of the dangers of tobacco use.
Thank you for your support in improving the health of young people by encouraging them to develop healthy lifestyles. We hope you enjoy using these materials and that they have a positive impact on tobacco awareness and prevention.
Please contact the American Cancer Society at 1-800-ACS-2345 or visit our Web site at to receive additional information on the hazards of tobacco use and for help with tobacco cessation.
Sincerely,
The American Cancer Society, High Plains Division
GASO letter to schools – follow up
Thank you for your interest and participation during the Great American Smokeout. Because of your efforts, many people have taken that first step towards quitting smoking and are leading healthier lives, and many youth have made the decision never to start using tobacco. Your efforts also have helped to create a cleaner indoor air environment that will allow everyone the opportunity to live healthier lives. Thank you for making a difference.
We wanted to share some additional information with you about the American Cancer Society and resources that might be helpful to you as you work with youth and help them learn about healthy living behaviors.
Resource / Description / Who Provides / CostThe Decision Is Yours
(2050.00) / A graphic pamphlet that will help young people make the decision to not start smoking. / American Cancer Society:
1-800-ACS-2345
or / $0.04
Enclosed you will also find a brochure about a variety of other services that the American Cancer Society has available.
Again, thank you for your participation in the Great American Smokeout. Please call
1-800-ACS-2345 or visit the Web site at if we can be of further assistance to you.
Sincerely,
The American Cancer Society, High Plains Division
Growing a Healthy Me
AgeRange: Elementary School Students
Number of children: 15 – 30
Time: Approximately 20 minutes
Resources needed: Copy of handout for each child (If you want to enlarge it so the children can have more space to draw their hands, please do so.) Crayons
Directions: Ask the students if they have any plants or gardens. Discuss what it takes to grow healthy plants, healthy gardens: soil, light, water, weeding, tending to the plan making sure dead leaves or blooms are removed, etc. How can they tell if a plant is unhealthy? How can they tell if a plant is healthy? What happens if a plant gets watered a lot, but it is the kind of plant that only likes a little water, or, if it is in the sun, but likes the shade?
After discussing the needs different plants have to stay healthy, explain that our bodies, too, need care to stay healthy. Ask what kinds of things children need to stay healthy: enough sleep, nutritious food, maybe trips to the doctor for shots to prevent illness, trips to the dentist for clean teeth.
After taking their comments, if no one has mentioned it, tell them that one other way we can stay healthy is by refusing drugs that are not approved by our doctors. One of these drugs is tobacco. Tobacco is very harmful to our bodies. It makes it harder to breathe, causes us to cough, can cause asthma attacks, ear infections, and other even more serious illnesses, like heart disease and cancer. To stay as healthy as possible we need to stay away from tobacco, both cigarettes and spit tobacco.
Give children copies of the handout. Read the poem on the handout to the children. Have the children say, “I want to be a healthy me!” Instruct them to draw around their hands to make leaves for the tree to finish the pictures. Display their pictures, or send them home with a note to parents about the tobacco-free/drug-free message you are teaching.
Poem
I want to be a healthy me.
I want to grow strong and big like a tree.
No tobacco or other drugs for me,
I’ll leave them be.
Great American Smokeout
Word Scramble
AgeRange:Grades 2 – 6
Number of Children15 – 30
Time:15 minutes
Resources needed:Copy of word search for each child, chalk board/white board with chalk or markers.
Directions: Ask the students to complete the puzzle by following the directions on the page.
Processing: Discuss with the students the options we have for using our time, money, and energy on making choices that are good for us and for our bodies. All of the 12 things that they found are positive things they can do instead of smoking cigarettes. Remind them that the majority of people do not choose to use tobacco, but decide to do things that are good for them and for those around them. Discuss some other positive things they can do and that they could encourage others to do instead of using tobacco products.
WE CAN ALL HELP BUILD A SMOKE-FREE PLANET!!
Great American Smokeout
What kids can do instead of smoking cigarettes
ITJHRIDENSD
NSDYOWCAEJR
SMOKINGJTOA
TEWDANCUSGW
ELNDIKSMIHO
ALRHMOWPLAY
DUTJTHINGSR
WOMGOFMSING
NSYTALKREDS
Find and circle these words:
Thingstodoinsteadofsmoking
jumpdancesingswimridejog
smelllistendrawplaytalknothing
Up In Smoke
AgeRange:Elementary School Students
Number of Students:15 – 30
Time:Research ongoing – 2 days to 1 week
Project – 2 class periods
Resources:Paper appropriate for a banner or separate sheets of paper or poster board that can be joined to make one really BIG statement! Markers, etc. for creating a colorful banner.
“Tobacco Use Just Doesn’t Make $en$e!”
Directions: Discuss with the students that in addition to tobacco use not being a good choice for our health, it is also a poor choice for spending money – after all, all the money spent on cigarettes goes up in smoke!
As an assignment, the students can find the price for a pack of cigarettes (they can compare brands and discuss why the difference in price). They also will need to determine the price on items or activities that are enjoyable and good for them (roller skating, going to a movie, bowling, buying a goldfish or a hamster, etc.).
They can be helped to compute the amount of money spent on cigarettes or chew tobacco at $3 per pack/can per day at 365 days a year. Using that total amount, they can choose how else to spend that money.
The banner they make can show their good choices for spending the money.
Encourage creativity and healthy options!
Processing: This activity should be an excellent opportunity for students to see how much we can waste financially and personally by using tobacco products.
The banner is a great visual to display during the Great American Smokeout.
Let’s Debate: A Lesson in Personal Advocacy
AgeRange:Middle School and High School Students
Number of Students:Classroom setting, small groups of students (4 – 6 members)
Time:Two 50 – 60 minute classrooms, potentially can be done in one
Resources:“Telling Fact from Fiction” (Can be obtained from the American Cancer Society) curriculum kit, 8 ½ x 11 paper, envelopes, stamps, pens, pencils, other creative props for the activity
Cost:Under $10 – stamps, paper, envelopes, photocopying, and creative props
Speaking in public can be one of the most frightening things we will do in our lifetime, however, letting others hear our concerns and issues is very important. Often students do not feel they have any influence on how things work in their families and neighborhoods. Students must understand that they have a right to speak out and that they can make a difference. As they grow into adulthood this right will become a responsibility of citizenship. This activity will help students become assertive about their viewpoints outside the classroom.
In this activity, students can be placed in small working groups and given a topic. The groups can work on the same or different topics. The groups can present their topic as a “skit” with a moral to the story. Hint: Have the students research each of the topics on the internet or at the local library. Our web site is . The groups can also be used to form debate teams, taking issue to a topic. Topics can include:
Clean Indoor Air
Tobacco Use on School Property/Sporting Events
Tobacco Advertising
Tobacco Pricing/Taxes
Youth Access to Tobacco Products
Here are some helpful tips to advocate (stand up) for yourself:
1)State your views, feelings, or needs.
Think before you speak.