A Recent issue of the New York Review of Books contained an extensive
article on tobacco and smoking and one of the points which struck me was
that apparent fact that adults who start smoking at (say) 18+ have a very
very high probability of quiting, whereas kids of (say) 12-16 who start
smoking have a very low probability of quiting.

This suggests that smoke free workplace, food service sites, etc. may save
some of us from second hand smoke, but since young kids don't frequent
workplaces and the like, what is called for is a stronger targeted demand
reduction strategy for kids. I know that there are programs aimed at kids.
Even when I was a kid, we had a session in the 4th grade where they showed
us pictures of babies that looked like footballs and said that is what
smoking did to the unborn child. Not very scientific and -of course- we
were so stressed by it we had to take a smoke break to calm nerves.

What I would like to know, get "pointers" to, are examples of program
approaches which enlist kids as partners in the non-smoking campaigns, and
approaches which use this electronic venue as the 'space' in which the
kids work on their tobacco demand reduction campaigns.

There is a possibility of mounting a kids crusade against tobacco, using
this electronic space. The pictures of football babies didn't work but we
-as kids- probably could have come up with things that did work. Only,
nobody asked us.

Sam Lanfranco <[log in to unmask]>  <[log in to unmask]>