Print
E-Mail
tool name
closeHealth Department aims to de-glamorize smoking
Programs to educate youth about the effect of smoking on eyesight and hair loss go into effect with campaign
Chris Albert
The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department is taking a different approach to fighting tobacco use among youths.
They already know about effects like lung cancer and heart disease, said Amrit Lal, prevention specialist with the department.
“But they are not worried about these things,” he said. “They have become sick and tired of hearing what they already know.”
So it’s time to take a different approach by de-glamorizing tobacco use, Lal said.
The department has been developing an educational program that highlights how smoking in particular has a negative effect not just on interior health but also an appearance.
“They are more worried about what happens to them right now,” Lal said. “They are more concerned with wrinkles on their face.”
Kick Butts Day was on April 2 and marked a month-long push across the nation to fight youth tobacco use by raising awareness about its effects on their health and welfare.
There is growing evidence that smoking is linked to hair loss, premature graying of hair, baldness, damage to eyesight, tooth loss and gum disease, wrinkles on the face and sleep deprivation.
These are effects the health department will focus on through a six poster series and educational material for local schools.
“This program is to de-glamorize,” Lal said.
There are more than 120,000 Pierce County residents between the ages of 10 and 21 years old.
It is estimated that 80 to 90 percent of future smokers will come from the last group.
“If we can curb smoking at this age then we can make a dent in the problem,” Lal said.
The age group is the most susceptible to smoking because they are in a peer group that supplies cigarettes. Youths often get cigarettes from older adolescents who are legally allowed to buy them, Lal said.
By educating youths about the immediate effects of smoking, the health department hopes to make a dent in the number of young people who smoke.
In surveys collected by the health department from school aged children, more than 80 percent responded they think it is “wrong to smoke at any age” and more than 70 percent responded “smoking is harmful to young people.”
At the same time, more than 20 percent of students in Pierce County were identified as smokers, Lal said.
Studies show that most youths in targeted age groups know that smoking can lead to health risks like cancer, stroke and heart disease. But there are other risks too, like its immediate effect on eye sight and hair loss, that many youths don’t know about.
A recent study by the British Journal of Ophanthalmology found that the loss of eye sight is something that youths fear more than any other smoking-related disease, but only 2 percent of youths surveyed knew of the link between smoking and damage to eyesight.