Burning cigarette is always bad news
By Gerald Oleson
Sun May 8, I had the privilege of being a member of a panel that met with a group of Searsport Elementary School
students.
Having taught school for almost 30 years before a bout with throat cancer, I know what it’s like to work with young
people, and I would like to compliment these youngsters for being so attentive and well-behaved. Their questions
and concerns about tobacco were very mature. They are a credit to their families, school and community.
As a nine-year survivor of cancer, I know the physical and emotional pain of having to deal with a life-threatening
illness. Each year more than 31,000 new cases of oral cancers are diagnosed. Fifty percent of the people with those
cancers will die within five years.
I have been one of the lucky ones. If anything I may have said to the students convinces just one of them to avoid
tobacco, any discomfort I may have had will have been worth it.
Tobacco addiction is the greatest cause of death in our society. More than 450,000 people die each year from smoking-related
diseases, more than from alcohol (including drunken driving), cocaine, heroin, morphine, murder, suicide, car accidents,
fires and AIDS combined.
Smoking is an act of self-pollution, and we now know it’s just not the nicotine in the tobacco that is dangerous
— the non-tobacco additives in cigarettes are also toxic. A burning cigarette gives off almost 7,000 chemicals;
more than 4,000 of these chemicals are poisonous; 43 of these chemicals are known to cause cancer. Carbon monoxide,
benzene, arsenic, butane, cyanide, formaldehyde, ammonia, methane, radioactive polonium 210 — the list goes on
and on.
It’s very important that education about smoking continues. Research shows that 90 percent of smokers start smoking
before the age of 18; 30 percent start before age 14. Teen smokers do less well in school and get into more trouble
than do their non-smoking counterparts. Also, teen smokers tend not to join clubs, play sports or participate in
any other school activities. Non-smokers are more likely to go to college, have high self-esteem, make more money
and live longer.
I congratulate the teachers, guidance counselors — especially Judy Cohen — and administrators at Searsport Elementary
School for their tobacco awareness project, and I hope they will continue this important work. The students will
thank you for it now; later, when they look back on their school years, they’ll love you for it.
Gerald Oleson lives in Bangor. E-mail: goleson@bangornews.infi.net |
