Anti-smoking education should focus on youngest

The proposed tobacco settlement with several states includes billions of dollars for public health initiatives at state and national levels.

---

Linda Prendez

---

A portion of that money should be aimed at college smokers, said William Novelli, president of the National Center for Tobacco Free Kids.

The comments were made in response to a recent study released by the Harvard School of Public Health showing a 28 percent increase in smoking among college students.

The hike is an about-face from a 30-year decline in adult smoking rates and seems to indicate that experimental smoking in high school may lead to regular habits more than officials had previously thought.

The majority of college smokers are not thought to be heavily addicted, which makes them prime candidates for anti-smoking messages, said the study's authors. But why waste time and money?

These are people who started smoking in their teens, as long ago as four years when anti-tobacco advertisements were on the rise.

The findings seem to indicate that adolescents, less-impressed by their elders, will still be willing to smoke - no matter how many anti-smoking messages and educational programs they are exposed to.

Many of these college students are financially strapped and on tight budgets, yet they still choose to smoke. Tobacco taxes are not likely to stop them either.

College students are adults who have made a conscious choice to smoke and are certainly aware of the damaging effects of the addictive habit.

Is it not a little too late to alarm them of the consequences? Fleeting messages and images of corroding, addicted smokers may disgust us, but how long lasting are their effects?

Maybe it is time to reevaluate our tactics in the crusade to save more people from the harmful effects of cigarettes. And maybe we should concentrate on those for whom incessant images and messages will have a longer lasting effect - young children.

Educational programs need to be more personal and long term. Perhaps smoking education should be incorporated into elementary education as a significant part of health education, where the scientific facts about smoking can be taught and tested.

If millions of dollars from an unprecedented tobacco industry settlement are going to be spent on educational programs, let's make sure that the messages are going to be effective.

And let's spend our energy on those who are not so set in their ways.

Linda Prendez is a journalism major.