Great American Smokeout organizers aim for lasting impression
GTAM | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Owensboro Catholic High School SCRUBS students didn't think everybody they contacted would suddenly quit smoking as part of their "Go Cold Turkey" program, but maybe it would at least plant a seed for stopping the cancerous addiction.
"I know some people will do it for a day and go back (to smoking) tomorrow," said OCHS senior Jenna Riney, the SCRUBS co-historian. "We hope that at some point in time, it'll register that this is something that will hurt them, and lead them to stopping altogether."
Thursday was the Great American Smokeout, the 33rd such annual day that asks smokers to stop smoking for one day.
"If they can convince themselves to make it through one day without a cigarette, maybe they can try to make it through tomorrow and the next day," said Sherry Krampe, the school nurse at OCHS. "Then maybe they'll see how much money they're saving by not purchasing cigarettes, and down the road, saving money by not sinking their money into medical care (for a smoking-related illness)."
Krampe said SCRUBS (Students Creating Respect Using Better Solutions) members distributed containers around OCHS and restaurants, asking people to pledge to be smoke-free Thursday and more than 200 people participated.
"They don't have an excuse to start smoking because they know better," Horn said. "Fifty years ago, when my grandmother started, she didn't have that information, but kids today can't claim ignorance.
"We still have a lot of work to do with kids."
According to the Web site tobaccofreekids.org, 26 percent of Kentucky high school students smoke while 25.2 percent of Kentucky adults smoke. The annual health care costs in Kentucky directly caused by smoking is $1.5 billion.
A report released last February said the nation's two largest tobacco companies -- Philip Morris USA and R.J. Reynolds -- are trying to reach women and girls by launching new marketing campaigns that depict cigarette smoking as feminine and fashionable rather than the harmful and deadly addiction physicians have said it is.
Rich Suwanski, 691-7315, rsuwanski@messenger-inquirer.com
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