Smoking

By NANCY E. GROTEVANT

Middle School students at Dingman Delaware and Delaware Valley recently participated in a trial that could save their lives.

The plaintiffs were a group of celebrities who died from tobacco use—John Wayne, Ernest, Babe Ruth and Morton Downey were just a few. Andy Kauffman was also a plaintiff, although he did not use tobacco; he worked in smoke filled clubs and contracted lung cancer from the second-hand smoke. The defendants were Phillip Morris, makers of Marlboro, and RJ Reynolds, makers of Camel and Winston cigarettes. Tony Delonti, from the American Lung Association, presented the case for the plaintiffs.

The students acted as the jury and judge to decide if the tobacco companies had lied to youth through their advertising and public statements. As the students listened to a videotaped statement of a tobacco company executive saying that people could die from too much applesauce just as easily as too many cigarettes, they laughed out loud. Students know that tobacco is the leading preventable cause of death and disease in the United States. It causes more than 400,000 deaths per year.

What students may not be aware of is how the tobacco companies target children and young teens. One exhibit for the plaintiffs was the cover of Time for Kids, with a large picture of a red and white racecar sponsored by Marlboro. The name of the largest selling cigarette in the country was splashed all over the car. Although tobacco companies are prohibited from advertising in children’s publications and on TV they can sponsor sporting events that children and teens often watch, such as Winston Cup racing.

Tobacco companies voluntarily developed guidelines for their advertising. But Delonti showed the students ads that violated all the guidelines the tobacco companies had made for themselves.

Delonti concluded the presentation by asking the students to decide if the tobacco companies had deliberately lied to the public. The students unanimously agreed that they had been lied to and deceived. When Delonti asked what the punishment should be the students suggested putting the companies out of business. Fortunately, the students themselves can carry out that sentence. By refusing to buy tobacco products the students can send a clear message to the tobacco companies by reducing their profits.

The presentation was part of Kick Butts Week activities supported by the Pike County Tobacco Free Coalition sponsored by the Pennsylvania Tobacco Prevention Network with funding from the Pennsylvania Department of Health. For more information about the Pike County Tobacco Free Coalition call 570/296-3400.

[Nancy E. Grotevant is Executive Director of Penn State Cooperative Extension of Pike County.]