Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

No Tobacco Day Is Scheduled For May 31

by Dr. Sandra B. Nichols, Director

Arkansas Department of Health

The sponsor of the annual World No Tobacco Day would like for everyone who used tobacco products to abstain on May 31, or to quit for good.

However, the World Health Organization's more realistic purpose for the designated day is to discourage tobacco use and to focus worldwide attention on the dangers of tobacco, both for smokers and non-smokers.

The effort to curb tobacco use is clearly gaining momentum. In recent years, many states have taken lead roles in lawsuits that seek compensation for tobacco-related illnesses from the tobacco industry. Many states, including Arkansas and the Arkansas Department of Health, have adopted aggressive control measures to protect young people from the dangers of tobacco addiction.

In Arkansas it is illegal for anyone to sell cigarettes to a minor.

KICK (Keep Illegal Cigarfettes from Kids), the Department of Health's award-winning tobacco prevention program, works to raise the public's awareness of the problem of selling tobacco to minors. Through a network of volunteers, Tobacco Free Arkansas Coalition secret shopping buys are conducted to determine if merchants are breaking state law by selling tobacco to minors.

Recently the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) began using photo identification of anyone under 27 seeking to purchase tobacco in order to ensure that tobacco is not sold to minors who may appear to be age 18 or older.

Tobacco use is a pediatric epidemic, according to Donna Shalala, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service.

Before this day ends, more than 3,000 young people will light a cigarette for the first time. The first few puffs will lead to being hooked for life for many of them.

Studies show that 42 percent of young people who smoke as few as three cigarettes a day become regular smokers. Of adult smokers, 90 percent began smoking during their teenage years. The fact is anyone who has not started smoking by age 19 is unlikely to ever become a smoker. And seven of 10 young Americans who smoke say they regret having started in the first place.

Since the hazards of tobacco use first became known four decades ago, scientific evidence has accumulatged rapidly. There is no doubt that tobacco causes death and disease on a very large scale. Health experts say that since the 1950s, tobacco products have killed more than 60 million people in developed countries alone. Unless the trend changes drastically, researchers say we can expect about 10 million people to die each year from using tobacco.

What diseases are caused by tobacco use? Smoking is a known or probable cause of death from cancers of the oral cavity, larynx, bladder, pancreas, stomach and cervix. Smoking is also known to cause heart disease, stroke, lung and other respiratory diseases.

Smoking reportedly kill more people each year than AIDS, car accidents, homicides, suicides and illegal drugs combined. All of this adds up to a global health emergency. In the United States along, $50 billion a year is spent on tobacco-related illnesses. In Arkansas, the annual tally is $296 million.

Non-smokers with friends, relatives or colleagues who do smoke are at risk of the ill-effects of involuntary exposure to environmental tobacco smoke, often called second-hand smoke.

Environmental tobacco smoke is a cause of disease, including lung cancer, in otherwise healthy non-smokers. In addition, it can aggravate asthmatic conditions, bronchitis and pneumonia. The children of parents who smoke have an increased frequency of respiratory and middle-ear infections.

The theme of World No Tobacco Day for 1997 # _United for a Tobacco- Free World -- is a reminder that no one person, organization or govenrment can stop the epidemic single-handedly. We must all work togther and continue our prevention efforts.

To learn how you or your community can become involved in toabcco prevention programs, contact the office of Tobacco Control adn Prevention of the Arkansas Department of Health at 501-661-2627.