| Kids,
Parents, and Power Struggles
Uncommon Sense for Parents with Teenagers
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Parents
– How to Keep your Children Tobacco Free
by Katrina Hayday Wester, adapted
from the Center for Disease Control Material
Did you
know that approximately 80% of adult smokers started smoking before
the age of eighteen and that every day; nearly 5,000 people under
the age of 18 try their first cigarette? Did you also know that tobacco
use is the leading preventable cause of death? In fact, smoking causes
more than 440,000 deaths each year at an annual cost of $75 billion
in medical costs. Don’t you think it’s time now to start
educating our children about the dangers of tobacco?
SPORTS AND TOBACCO
In the early days of the Tour de France, cyclists believed that smoking
would enhance their performance. It was not uncommon to see the competitors
riding with a cigarette in their mouths. If they only knew…
- Smokers
suffer shortness of breath.
- Smokers
run slower and can’t run as far
- Cigars
and spit tobacco are NOT safe alternatives.
- Nicotine
in cigarettes, cigars, and spit tobacco is addictive
- Nicotine
narrows your blood vessels and puts added strain on your heart.
- Smoking
can wreck lungs and reduce oxygen available for muscles used during
sports
KEEPING
UP APPEARANCES:
- Smoking
makes your clothes and hair smell. (Perfume doesn’t mask the
smell.)
- It yellows
your teeth, skin and fingernails.
- Tobacco
makes your breath smell – and mints don’t help.
- Don’t
waste money on cigarettes. You can spend it on, music, books, magazines,
or clothes. A pack of cigarettes costs between $4.00 and $5.00 per
pack, just think of all the good uses for that money!
PARENTS
RULE
- If you
use tobacco, don’t use it around your children. Don’t
offer it to them and make sure it is inaccessible.
- Start talking
to your children early about the dangers of tobacco. If you wait until
middle school or high school they could already be addicted.
- Discuss
with them the fact that smoking is not glamorous. It is a dependency
like any other drug. That it is used in movies and television but
that it isn’t glamorous. Even in movies and on TV, every time
actors take a drag on a cigarette, they shorten their lives.
- If anyone
you know has died from a tobacco related illness tell your child.Teach
your child how they can refuse tobacco if their friends use it.
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