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Youth Help “Kick Butts” in Licking County
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LICKING COUNTY, OHIO – Wednesday, March 16, 2016 is National Kick Butts Day, a day for youth to stand up and speak out against tobacco. The Licking County STAND team, a youth-led tobacco prevention group, organized multiple campaigns to educate other youth on the dangers of tobacco use.
STAND ran social media campaigns encouraging teens to be tobacco-free and educating adults on the benefits of having a smoke-free home. Members of the Youth Leadership Council of Licking County developed radio ads on the health risks of using smokeless tobacco and will run a poster campaign in high schools busting the myths of e-cigarettes and vaping. One youth advocate explained why he wants to stand up against tobacco: “I kick butts because I don’t want anyone suffering from what my grandpa did from smoking.”
Nearly 9 out of 10 smokers start before the age of 18. In Ohio, tobacco companies spend more than one million dollars per day advertising their products. One third of teenage experimentation with tobacco can be attributed to this advertising. If we do not do more to prevent youth from starting, 1 out of every 13 children alive today will die from smoking.
The best way to celebrate this day is to quit using tobacco or encourage others to quit. Quitting at any age is beneficial. The healing process begins within the first 20 minutes of quitting. Licking County residents can call the Ohio Tobacco Quit Line at 1-800-784-8669 or Licking Memorial Health Systems’ Quit for Your Health Program at 740-348-7848. Free online help is available at ohio.quitlogix.org.
For more information, contact Hilary Requejo at hrequejo@lickingcohealth.org or (740) 349- 6500.
Funding is provided to the Licking County Health Department by the Ohio Department of Health, Tobacco Use Prevention and Cessation Program, which is supported by Cooperative Agreement 5U58DP001983-05 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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“The Licking County Health Department serves more than 160,000 citizens in the Licking County General Health District by preventing disease, protecting the environment and promoting healthy lifestyles with a vision of healthy people living in healthy communities.”
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