By Scott Brinton
And, yes, school was in session that day.
"The tobacco companies have offices in New York City. I want the tobacco companies to hear this," said Fuschillo, a Republican from Merrick.
"Count down ... 10 ... 9 ... 8 ... 7 ...!"
"No smoking!" came the thunderous cry from the students when they reached zero.
"One more time!" Fuschillo said.
"No smoking!"
Thus ended Fuschillo's half-hour presentation in recognition of the Great American Smokeout, which had taken place the day before.
Fuschillo noted that a single cigarette contains more than 4,000 chemicals, including some of the same ingredients found in rat poison and insecticides.
"Three thousand kids every day pick up their first cigarette to smoke," said Fuschillo. The tobacco companies, he explained, need new customers -- mostly young people -- in order to survive. Older smokers, he said, "are forced to stop smoking or they die. There are 400,000 people [in the U.S.] who die every year from smoking." Tobacco companies spend more than $1 million per day on advertising in New York state alone, primarily to get young people hooked, the senator added.
Fuschillo spoke at length about the law he sponsored in 2003 to ban smoking in bars and restaurants. New York was among the first states to prohibit smoking in eateries. In all, 21 states have now instituted the ban.
Fuschillo said that tobacco company lobbyists followed him from his Albany office to the state legislative chambers daily in the years leading up to 2003, seeking in any and all ways possible to get him to kill the smoking ban before it became law. The tobacco companies "fought me every single day," Fuschillo said. "They started doing campaigns against me."
At Friday's forum, he asked students to offer suggestions for their own laws. They said the state should ban smoking at parks and beaches. "All right, maybe that's the next idea," Fuschillo said.
Miriam Hanan, Levy-Lakeside's principal, said she never started smoking because she had seen firsthand the devastating effects it had on members of her family. "It's not really healthy for you or for the people around you," she told the children.
Fuschillo passed out pledges for the students to sign, vowing never to smoke. He asked them to take them home, discuss them with their parents and mail them back to his office. On Thursday and Friday, Fuschillo collected more than 8,000 pledges.
Justin Kaplan, a Levy-Lakeside fifth-grader, said, "I thought it would be just him talking, but he made it fun and interactive with us. I never knew rat and mice killer were in [cigarettes], and that's disgusting."
Layla Said, another fifth-grader, said her father smokes but her mother does not. "My dad is always telling me that he wishes he never did it," she said, "and he tells me never to do it, so I listen to him."
Comments about this story? SBrinton@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 203.
