Tobacco will be in the crosshairs during Kick Butts Day March 24

Cynthia Hawthorne/Department of the Army Public Health Nursing

Kick Butts Day, created by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, will be observed March 24. The day is intended as a means of encouraging youth to “stand out, speak up and seize control against tobacco,” but it’s a great opportunity for adults to take their own up-close look at the effects of their habits.

Most of us know smoking can cause lung cancer, emphysema and heart disease. Some of us know that smoking can accelerate the aging process and cause an earlier onset of many diseases such as osteoporosis or dementia. But a lot of us don’t know the effects that second-hand smoke or third-hand smoke can have on young children.

These effects go beyond simply worsening asthma symptoms or causing frequent ear and sinus infections. For example, did you know that chronic exposure to second-hand smoke is associated with ADD/ADHD and learning delays? Or that early research indicates long-term childhood exposure to secondhand smoke could be related to early onset emphysema or cancers when these children become non-smoking adults?

Many smokers do not smoke in their homes; they go outside to protect their families from the dangerous health effects of their addiction. Yet, some of them are the same ones who think nothing of smoking in the car with their captive young passenger buckled safely in a car seat.

To prevent tobacco-related disease in yourself and your family, quit using tobacco products. If that’s not possible, then take the same precautions in the car you do at home. Ask all passengers to refrain from smoking even if the children are not present. Plan ahead, chew nicotine gum or, if on a long trip, wear a nicotine patch. You’ll set an excellent example and have a cleaner car, and your car will retain more of its resale value. Did you know a car that reeks of cigarettes loses about $1,500 of its trade-in value?

Become an anti-cancer, pro-health advocate. Stop by the MAMC Pediatrics clinic on March 18 and receive a window cling declaring your car a healthy “tobacco free zone.”

For more information

Call TRICARE at 1-800-404-4506 and ask for a tobacco cessation appointment or check out these Web sites

www.lungusa.org

www.ucanquit2.org

www.becomeanex.org

www.tobaccofreekids.org

You can also call Army Public Health Nursing Services at 968-4387 to arrange a class for your family readiness group to learn more about the health risks associated with tobacco use.