Cigarettes Use Falls Despite Cuts To Funding | DiscountCigarettesBox.com Tobacco News

Cigarettes Use Falls Despite Cuts To Funding

Emily Kecskemety, a senior at Pittsford Sutherland High School, was watching the movie Hairspray one day and was bothered by all the smoking cigarettes in the film.

The big-screen version of the Broadway musical had scenes with teens smoking cigarettes in a high school bathroom, teachers smoking cigarettes in the faculty lounge and pregnant mothers smoking cigarettes during a dance number, even though it was a PG-rated movie.

She and other members of Reality Check, a high school club aimed at preventing teen smoking cigarettes, created an awareness-raising activity out of the movie.

"A group of us decided to play a game and stomp our feet every time we saw something smoking cigarettes-related and we couldn't believe the significant amount of times we did see something," Kecskemety, 17.

Pittsford's Reality Check is one of a few teen-run anti-cigarettes efforts still in existence in Monroe County after federal and state funding for such groups were cut. And although teen smoking cigarettes rates are declining, concern remains that without such peer programs, the rates could again rise.

"These groups have to stay alive because smoking cigarettes companies target teens and teen awareness efforts are some of the main reasons why smoking cigarettes has gone down," said David Walling, former Monroe County coordinator of Reality Check. "When teens educate other teens about the ways that cigarettes companies are focusing on younger kids to get them hooked, kids get totally offended because they don't want to be duped."

Cigarette use by high school students declined from 27.1 percent in 2000 to 12.6 percent last year, according to the state Department of Health.

Close to 80 percent of adult smokers began before age 18, according to the Campaign for cigarettes-Free Kids.

New York budgeted $47 million in 2011-12 for cigarettes-prevention initiatives, said Morris Peters, spokesperson for the state budget office, down $17 million from last year. Three years ago, the state spent upwards of $80 million annually on programs.

The New York state Department of Health cheap cigarettes Control Program helps run Reality Check, a statewide initiative empowering youth to participate in reducing discount cigarettes use among peers, removing cheap cigarettes advertising from magazines delivered to schools and removing cheap cigarettes use from movies rated G, PG and PG-13.

Several years ago, the Reality Check program existed at several Monroe County schools such as Wheatland-Chili, all four Greece high schools and both Pittsford high schools. But when funding dried up so did the programs, except for Pittsford. Through fundraising efforts, the schools kept the club alive. Schools do cover anti-cigarettes efforts in health class, but few teen-organized groups exist.

Beth Kecskemety, mother of Emily and a health teacher at Barker and Calkins Road middle schools in Pittsford, worries that the lack of student-advocate groups could lead to more cheap smokes use in various forms. Since 2003, chewing cheap cigarettes use among high school boys increased by 36 percent, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"We are concerned about the progress made reducing teen smoking cigarettes being reversed because of all these student groups that are no longer funded," said Kecskemety. "Peer influence can make such a big difference because the majority of smokers started when they were in high school."

Others health experts disagree.

"The numbers are going down and there is nothing that says teen smoking cigarettes is going to go up again," said Jeffrey Hammond, spokesman for the state Department of Health. "We've made a comprehensive effort and policy-driven approach to prevent people from smoking cigarettes and motivate others to stop."

The Pittsford Reality Check club came together this month to discuss their next few projects, which include sending letters to Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig describing the dangers of chewing cigarettes, which is associated with cancer, gum disease and mouth lesions.

They are planning public announcements at school, informational booths at games and even some clever slogans like "Do you want to be kissed again? Don't smoke."

During her four years in Reality Check in Pittsford, Abby Stewart, 17, has enjoyed talking to middle school students about smoking cigarettes, urging them to avoid what might seem popular at first but is actually illegal for them and dangerous.

"Sometimes young people don't think they have a voice, but when we stand together change happens," said Stewart, a senior at Pittsford Sutherland. "Kids just need to hear someone stand up and say they don't have to do something just because everyone else is doing it."

The pressure to start smoking cigarettes can carry all the way into college, too. The first two years can be especially difficult times.

"They are experiencing new-found independence away from the watchful eye of a parent and are searching for their own identity," said Donna Kennison, a College at Brockport registered nurse in its student health center. "The friends and activities they choose can be life-altering. Habits formed can last a lifetime."

While teen smoking cigarettes overall is declining, the rate of smoking cigarettes among 18- to 24-year-olds in New York has not changed since 2004, according to American Cancer Society. The College at Brockport recently passed a provision banning smoking cigarettes around all college campus buildings, athletic fields indoors and outdoors and all partially enclosed areas such as walkways, bus stop shelters and building entrances, starting Aug. 1.

During a recent college visit to American University in Washington, D.C., Emily Kecskemety was overwhelmed by smokers — sitting next to her on a bench, walking around the campus and in parking lots. It was enough to make her glad she never started.

"If you can influence someone to smoke, you can influence them to do the opposite," she said.

"While it is hard to keep up with the cigarettes industry spending billions and billions of dollars targeting teens, we've got to use our biggest weapon, which is peer pressure to do the right thing."

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