Use of Cigarettes by Kids should be prevented

Published on January 26, 2010 7:08 AM

As it is known tobacco use was banned in public places by almost all countries only for to decrease the smoking among people, especially among children.

For example, thanks to anti-tobacco legislations in Montgomery County, the youth tobacco use decreased within 2003-2008. However smoking cigarettes is still a significant problem for Hoosier teenagers. According to the Indiana Prevention Resource Center's 2008 study of school students, Montgomery County students in grades 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 12 reported above state average use of cigarettes.

A lot of studies have shown that younger a person is when they become addicted to the nicotine, the more difficulty they will have kicking the bad habit.

Statistics show that among American adults, smoking kills over 400,000 people from a variety of cancer and other chronic diseases. Indiana, a state of US, ranks second in the nation for adult cigarette smoking and Montgomery County has one of the higher rates in the state at approximately 30 percent.

But a recent research found that a younger a person is when they use tobacco the more probable they are to use alcohol, marijuana and other drugs. In general cigarette use can attack the young persons physically and mentally. Even experimenting with cigarettes can without difficulty lead to addiction.

The project "Toward No Tobacco" (TNT) is an evidence-based curriculum that seeks to prevent tobacco use among young people, especially those aged 10-14. The program is planned to neutralize several different causes of tobacco use by kids.

Project TNT is a class-room based program that consists of 10 essential lessons and two supporter meetings. The sessions are no more than 50 minutes long and use a large range of teaching approaches to attract students.

Manager Liz Thompson explained: "Preventing first use of tobacco by young people is very important because once young people begin smoking then they are unlikely to stop. However all educators can play a positive role in prevention."

In addition to the above curriculum, Thompson is also certified to offer Tobacco Addiction Program (TAP) which helps children under the age of 18 quit smoking.

For example in Project TNT were involved such activities: games, videos, role-plays, large and small group conversations, use of student questionnaires, homework assignments, and a videotaping project.

So student participants will be assessed by pre- and post-test measures to determine what they have learned from the program.