Tobacco Free Schools

Tobacco Free Schools

While smoking is banned inside school buildings, not all school districts in Florida restrict smoking and tobacco use on all of their properties or at their events. Comprehensive smoke-free school policies are an important step in building a healthier future for our youth. These policies create a safe and healthy environment for students, faculty, and staff, while sending a clear message that tobacco use is not a socially acceptable behavior and about the dangers of tobacco use. Smoke-free schools reduce exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) and encourage smokers to consume less of this addictive product—and to possibly quit.

The importance of de-normalizing tobacco use through positive role modeling cannot be overlooked. If students don’t see teachers, coaches, school faculty, parents and visitors using tobacco, then they’ll be less likely to think tobacco is acceptable and will be less likely to start using. Nine out of 10 current cigarette smokers started when they were teens.1 In Florida, more than 22,800 kids (under 18) become new cigarette smokers each year.2 Tobacco use initiation often leads to a lifetime of addiction, resulting in tobacco-related disease and premature death. Current data suggests that 369,000 Florida children, now under the age of 18, will ultimately die prematurely from their own smoking or from SHS.3

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines comprehensive school-based programs in its “Guidelines for School Health Programs to Prevent Tobacco Use and Addiction.” The first guideline recommends that schools develop and enforce policies to prohibit tobacco use by students, staff, parents, and visitors on school grounds; in school vehicles; and at all school-sponsored events, on or off school property. In June 2011, Gov. Rick Scott signed a law amending the Florida Clean Indoor Air Act to give school boards the authority to designate all district property as tobacco-free. While it is not unusual for school boards to implement policies requiring that buildings be smoke-free indoors, an increasing number of school boards throughout Florida have gone 100 percent smoke-free indoors and out.

Another important component of a comprehensive school policy is to prevent pro-tobacco influences from reaching youth at schools. Such policies ban tobacco industry sponsored materials and services, and do not permit school districts to accept gifts from the tobacco industry.

Education is one of the most effective ways to prevent youth tobacco use and to keep them safe from exposure to SHS. Schools that are not smoke-free send conflicting messages to students about the dangers of tobacco use and the health effects of SHS. It’s important to continue teaching Florida’s youth about socially responsible and healthy behaviors, including not using tobacco. Teaching by example is the first step in doing so.

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  • Secondhand smoke is a serious problem. It contains a deadly mix of more than 7,000 chemicals, hundreds of which are toxic and about 70 that can cause cancer.
  • There is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke. Breathing even a little secondhand smoke can be dangerous.4
  • Each year, primarily because of exposure to secondhand smoke, an estimated 3,000 nonsmoking Americans die of lung cancer.5
  • Nonsmokers who are exposed to secondhand smoke at home or at work increase their risk of developing lung cancer by 20 to 30 percent.6
  • Each year, primarily because of exposure to secondhand smoke, more than 46,000 nonsmoking Americans die of heart disease.7
  • Nonsmokers who are exposed to secondhand smoke at home or at work increase their risk of developing heart disease by 25 to 30 percent.8
  • Breathing secondhand smoke can have immediate adverse effects on your blood and blood vessels, increasing the risk of having a heart attack.9
  • In Florida alone, 2,520 nonsmokers died from exposure to secondhand smoke in 2010.10
  • In 2010, 47 percent of middle school students and 54 percent of high school students in Florida had been exposed to secondhand smoke in a room or a car in the previous week.11
  • Kids are more likely to have lung problems, ear infections, and severe asthma from being around tobacco smoke. In fact, more than 40 percent of kids who go to the emergency room for asthma live with smokers. A severe asthma attack can put a kid’s life in danger.12
  • Each year, more than 300,000 children suffer from infections caused by tobacco smoke, including bronchitis, pneumonia, and ear infections.13
  • Low levels of smoke exposure, including exposure to SHS, lead to a rapid and sharp increase in dysfunction and inflammation of the lining of the blood vessels, which are implicated in heart attacks and stroke.14
  • In Florida, more than 22,800 kids (under 18) become new smokers each year.15
  • In 2010, 13.1 percent of high school students and 4.9 percent of middle school students in Florida were current cigarette smokers.16
  • Among High School students in Florida, non-Hispanic whites have the highest prevalence of current cigarette smokers (17.8 percent), followed by Hispanics (11.9 percent) and non-Hispanic black students (4.9 percent).17
  • High school smoking prevalence rates in Florida have declined from 15.5 percent in 2006, to 13.1 percent in 2010.18
  • The number of youth who are committed never-smokers increased from 55 percent in 2006 to 62.6 percent in 2010.19
  • Based on current data, national tobacco researchers predict that 369,000 Florida kids, now under the age of 18, will ultimately die prematurely from smoking.20

ReferencesReferencia

1 Department of Health and Human Services (US). A Report of the Surgeon General: Preventing Tobacco Use Among Young People. 1995. Web.  22 March 2011.

2 “Tobacco Free Kids.” Spending on Tobacco Prevention: Florida. n.d. web.  23 March 2011

3 “The Toll of Tobacco in Florida.” Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. 2011 http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/facts_issues/toll_us/florida

4 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke: A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Coordinating Center for Health Promotion, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, 2006

5 American Cancer Society, Source: Cancer Facts & Figures 2010

6 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke: A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Coordinating Center for Health Promotion, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, 2006

7 American Cancer Society, Source: Cancer Facts & Figures 2010

8 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke: A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Coordinating Center for Health Promotion, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, 2006

9 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. A Report of the Surgeon General: How Tobacco Smoke Causes Disease: What It Means to You. Atlanta: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, 2010

10 “The Toll of Tobacco in Florida,” Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. 2010 http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/facts_issues/toll_us/florida

11 2010 Florida Youth Tobacco Survey (FYTS). Data from the 2010 County-Level FYTS. January 11, 2011

12 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke: A Report of the Surgeon General. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, 2006

13 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. How Tobacco Smoke Causes Disease: The Biology and Behavioral Basis for Smoking-Attributable Disease: A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, 2010

14 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. How Tobacco Smoke Causes Disease: The Biology and Behavioral Basis for Smoking-Attributable Disease: A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, 2010

15 “Tobacco Free Kids.” Spending on Tobacco Prevention: Florida. n.d. web.  23 March 2011.

16 2010 Florida Youth Tobacco Survey

17 http://www.doh.state.fl.us/disease_ctrl/epi/Chronic_disease/FYTS/2010_FYTS/FS1-Cigarette.pdf

18 2010 Florida Youth Tobacco Survey (FYTS). Data from the 2010 County-Level FYTS. January 11, 2011

19 Florida Department of Health (FDOH). “Tobacco Free Florida is Good for Public Health: ½ Million Fewer Smokers Since 2006.” n.d. Brochure

20 ”The Toll of Tobacco in Florida”. Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/facts_issues/toll_us/florida

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