FORT WALTON BEACH — Okaloosa County’s Students Working Against Tobacco are speaking up and taking action against the tobacco industry for the 21st annual Kick Butts Day on March 16.
This national day of activism, sponsored by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, empowers youth to fight back against Big Tobacco.
Shoal River Middle School held a dodgeball tournament March 4 to promote Kick Butts Day and educate their peers on Big Tobacco’s marketing tactics and Crestview High School SWAT members will have a pot luck during their weekly meeting and are inviting students to join them in a kick ball game after school on March 16.
Niceville High School will also set up a Kick Butts Day photo booth March 16 to educate their peers about the dangers of tobacco during public education periods.
“Youth have always been a target for the tobacco industry,” said Ryan Takacs, the CHS SWAT vice president. “Through our Kick Butts Day events, we are able to educate our friends and tell Big Tobacco we are not replacements.”
According to a 2014 Surgeon General report, about 1,300 people die everyday in the United States because of smoking.
In response, the tobacco companies target a new generation of potential customers. A 1984 internal document from R.J. Reynolds, the makers of Camel, stated. "Younger adult smokers are the only source of replacement smokers… If younger adults turn away from smoking, the industry must decline, just as a population which does not give birth will eventually dwindle."
Youths and young adults rarely consider the long-term health consequences of smoking when they start. A 2012 Surgeon General report states that because of nicotine, a highly addictive drug, three out of four youth smokers continue smoking well into adulthood, often with serious and even deadly consequences. In fact, about half of long-term smokers die prematurely from smoking-related causes.
The 2012 and 2014 Surgeon General reports also state that if current smoking rates continue, 5.6 million U.S. children who are currently younger than 18 years of age will eventually die prematurely as a result of smoking; and almost all initiation of daily tobacco use begins by the age of 18.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Shoal River, Crestview High students fight tobacco use