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Students take Smokebusters Training
The Index, Hermitage MO
10/14/2009
Students from Hermitage High School recently attended the Smokebusters training session at Bolivar. While at the training the students learned about the dangers associated with smoking and secondhand smoke. Hermitage Teen Advisors had time to plan activities they will be working on throughout the school to e4ducate others about the dangers of tobacco usage.
“Students as leaders are a powerful part of the goal for tobacco-free communities because of their ability to get things done that others can’t” said Joyce Lara, school coordinator for Smokebusters. “So far, our young people have influenced 89 policy changes in schools, restaurants, parks, hospitals and local businesses. It shows that commitment of the students and their desire to live in a community that cares about the health of all its citizens.”
Program officials say tobacco use is the number one preventable cause of death and disease in Missouri. This year, more than 28,000 Missouri kids will light their first cigarette and another 8,500 will become daily smokers, according to a recent report by The Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. Efforts to prevent smoking by groups such as Smokebusters could save Missourians nearly $1.4 billion each year in health care expenses caused by tobacco.
Smokebusters is operating in 52 counties with more than 1,200 students and mentors involved including recent expansion into Northwest Missouri, Joplin and the Kansas City area.
Smokebusters is a three –year program based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control for youth grades 8-11 that empowers them to become critical thinkers, avoid tobacco use, and advocate for a tobacco-free environment through policy change. The program is sponsored by CASW at the Department of Family and Community Medicine and the University of Missouri. Funding comes from the Missouri Foundation for Health and the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.
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