Combating youth tobacco use in RVC

Thursday, Nov. 20, 2014 marked the Annual Great American Smokeout. This day offered an opportunity to remind fellow students and faculty that quitting smoking is essential for good health. Data shows that despite efforts, the most at-risk populations in New York haven’t been able to quit on this day or any other. Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable disease, responsible for killing nearly 24,000 New Yorkers every year, and afflicting nearly 600,000 New Yorkers with serious disease directly related to their smoking.
For the Great American Smokeout, the Rockville Centre Youth Council, in conjunction with South Side High School’s SADD Club, partnered with the Tobacco Action Coalition of Long Island (TAC of LI) in displaying educational materials at the high school to bring awareness to the need to quit, and to protect our local youth and peers from being targeted by the tobacco lobby’s strenuous marketing efforts.
“Quitting smoking is the single most important step you can take to reduce your risk of cancer and improve your health,” said Naomi Bisk, a social worker at South Side High School and advisor to SADD.
The American Cancer Society, sponsor of the Annual Great American Smokeout, estimates that 30 percent of cancers could be avoided if people stopped using tobacco. “In Rockville Centre, we are working hard to give our youths the education and tools to prevent their initiation to this addiction,” Andrea Connolly, chair of the RVC Youth Council, said.
“We encourage policies that promote smoke-free outdoors and smoke-free housing, and policies that reduce youth exposure to tobacco marketing,” said Carol Meschkow, Nassau Project Coordinator for TAC of LI. “[We are] pleased to once again have partnered with the Youth Council and SADD in offering resource materials to help enlighten youths of the critical need to voice their concerns to their elected leaders. It’s great to see motivated teen leaders advocating to protect themselves and their friends from the tobacco lobby’s efforts to lure them in with glitzy advertisements at the point-of-sale; especially when youths are twice as likely to recall tobacco advertising than adults.”
Efforts to help smokers quit and keep kids from starting to smoke will continue to have a major impact on the health of New York State now and in the future. The Youth Council’s peer drug and alcohol educators (Youth Decide) are meeting with 5th grade students to teach them about the harmful effects of tobacco, encouraging them to resist social pressure and to in healthy activities for self-esteem.
Contact the Tobacco Action Coalition of LI at www.breathefreely.org to find about more about help quitting, or call the New York State Smokers’ Quit line at: 1-866-NY-QUITS.