PORT TOWNSEND — Older teens are teaching younger children about the dangers of smoking in a new program in Jefferson County.
Teens Against Tobacco Use — or TATU — recruits older students to pass down the message to younger students in order to discourage them from beginning the habit.
“We want to find a way to discourage kids from starting because it is so much harder to quit,” said Karen Obermyer of the Jefferson County Public Health Department.
This program is a collaboration among Jefferson County Public Health, Port Townsend High School and the American Lung Association.
Fourteen students
Fourteen Port Townsend High School students spent a day in February learning about the dangers of tobacco use and practicing presentation skills.
The students then shared their expertise with elementary students at Blue Heron Middle School and Swan School.
Anti-smoking efforts have gained traction in recent years, with the Public Health District reporting that 85.9 percent of Jefferson County adults do not smoke, a more favorable number than the state total of 85.2 percent.
And while most teens don’t smoke, the peak years for first trying a cigarette appear to be in the sixth and seventh grades, between the ages of 11 and 13, with some starting even earlier.
Christine Unrue, a 16-year-old 11th-grader, said none of her friends smoke
“I try not to hang around with people who get involved in those kinds of things because they aren’t a good influence,“ she said.
Unrue said some teens smoke because they live in homes without television and are not exposed to the anti-smoking messages that are broadcast over television networks.
“A lot of kids are old-school, and they don’t get to see commercials like ‘live above the influence’ and other nonsmoking messages,” she said.
Unrue said she wasn’t sure what she would do if one of her friends lit up a cigarette.
“I might try to talk to them, or maybe I would just take the cigarette right out of their hand,” she said. “Tobacco’s not good.”
Lungs
The program showed fourth-graders what the lungs of smokers and nonsmokers look like, Unrue said.
“We show them two lungs, one that is healthy and what one looks like when the person has been smoking, and they are just completely grossed out by it,” she said.
“The energy we got from them was so amazing. They were so tuned in and were really into it.”
No one in Unrue’s family has ever smoked, which set an example for her.
When she is walking down the street and sees someone smoking, “I run ahead and try not to take any of it in because secondhand smoke is as bad.”
Unrue said she is hoping to develop her involvement in TATU into a senior project next year and is planning a career as a nutritionist.
For additional information and tobacco prevention resources, visit www.doh.wa.gov/Tobacco/intro.htm or phone 800-784-8669.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
