SPRINGDALE : Teens cite background in anti-tobacco course
Posted on Friday, May 1, 2009
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/BOB COLEMAN Pia Kofler (from left), Hannah Hawley and Courtney Palmer, all 14 and of Rogers, work with other middle school students Thursday morning in a breakout exercise at the Tobacco-Free Coalition Summit at The Jones Center for Families in Springdale. Students from Rogers, Bentonville and Springdale learned ways to teach their peers about the dangers of smoking.
SPRINGDALE - Youngsters run the risk of being considered uncool when trying to convince their peers it's a bad idea to smoke or chew tobacco, but two University of Arkansas freshmen shrugged that off.
In their earlier teen years, Lizette Castillo of Fordyce and Shawn Burns of Texarkana became volunteer anti-tobacco advocates.
Both are 19-year-old minority-group members who grew up in different parts of south Arkansas. Coincidentally, both trained, through separate programs, on the best methods to sway other youth.
The two reflected on their paths Thursday, in-between peer advocacy sessions they taught for seventh- and eighthgraders at The Jones Center for Families in Springdale.
"I don't like to follow the crowd," said the Mexican-born Castillo, who since third grade has spoken English with a Southern twang just like most any other Arkansas-raised girl.
"I was the only Hispanic, for one thing," said Castillo, who graduated as valedictorian of her class from Fordyce High School.
She doesn't think she could have scored the academic accomplishment if she'd followed the popular, partying crowd that favored smoking and drinking, she said.
Burns, a business and political science major, said he and his friends decided they would make themselves the leaders in what was cool.
They joined Teens with the BEAT, an outgrowth of Breathe Easy ArkTex Tobacco Control, when he was a sophomore in high school.
BEAT Tobacco Control began as two separate coalitions in the Texas and Arkansas sides of Texarkana, but merged after the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences applied in 2002 for community-based tobacco prevention funding from the Arkansas Department of Health, according to the UAMS Web site. The new coalition then established 14 active Teens with the BEAT groups in southwest Arkansas.
"We incorporated, dancing, 'stepping' and singing," said Burns, who is black, referring to performances that use synchronized stepping and clapping movements. "I did it initially because it got me out of school."
But Burns found that he loved volunteering to fight tobacco.
"All it takes is to really sit down and be a leader," he told the groups of nearly 70 middleschoolers from Springdale, Rogers and Bentonville. He and Castillo had small groups of six to 10 students each come up with a chant, song, poem, dance or skit designed to show off their confidence in advocating for something they could agree to feel passionate about.
Then he demonstrated his stepping skills.
It was the first year for the anti-tobacco Teen Summit, said Ashley Toland, project coordinator for the Northwest Arkansas Tobacco Free Coalition. Other organizers were Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD), Jones Center, Drug Free Rogers-Lowell, and Kids for Health and its Coordinated School Health program.
Castillo became an advocate in seventh grade, when the state Health Department and Arkansas for Drug Free Youth sent recruitment letters to the schools. She chose to specialize in fighting tobacco.
In trying to change minds, Castillo opted for the soft, diplomatic approach. A lot of the boys at her school chewed their tobacco, and roughly 75 percent of her friends smoked.
"I wouldn't start an argument with them," said Castillo, who wants to become a bilingual psychologist, so is majoring in Spanish/Latin American studies and psychology at UA.
Instead, she would ask her classmates if they knew tobacco was unhealthy, and whether she could bring them a brochure. It often worked.
Foregoing the "cool" route didn't totally backfire: "I had a social life," she said. "I got on the homecoming court."
Both also have personal reasons for their quest.
Castillo has an uncle whose habit leads him to get up in the middle of the night to smoke, and Burns worries about his father.
"Ever since I can remember, my dad smoked," Burns said. "I realized that there are a lot of things that can kill humans today - but tobacco was right under our nose.
"It's the real weapon of mass destruction."
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Kick Tobacco Day Carnival 2009
| By: Sharayah Sherrod - Texarkana Gazette - | Published: 03/22/2009 |
But for those who didn’t, local groups are trying to get the word out about kicking what they say are bad habits and hang-ups. They also encourage not picking up the habit in the first place.
“Don’t start and if you do, quit,” said Gerry Wenta, Howard County Special Prevention Unit coordinator and an exhibitor at the sixth annual Kick Tobacco Day Carnival held Saturday at
Tobacco Tax
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Live from the House Chamber HB 1204
1:40 p.m.: Gregg Reep is presenting HB1204, which is the funding mechanism for the statewide trauma system and other healthcare initiatives. The bill increases the tax on cigarettes by 56 cents per pack and includes an OTP tax on smokeless tobacco.
1:55 p.m.: Reep is now accepting questions from Rep. Stephanie Flowers and Tracy Pennartz
2:00 p.m.: Rep. Frank Glidewell is speaking against the bill.
2:05 p.m.: Speaker Wills is speaking for the bill.
2:10 p.m.: Rep. Bryan King is speaking against the bill.
2:12 p.m.: Rep. Billy Gaskill is speaking for the bill.
2:17 p.m.: Rep. Dunn moves for immediate consideration, and the motion passes.
The bill passes by a vote of 75-24.
(Democrat, Republican, Green)
Yes Abernathy Allen T. Baker Betts Blount T. Bradford Breedlove J. Brown M. Burris Carroll Cash Cheatham Cole Cook Cooper L. Cowling Creekmore Dale Davenport Davis J. Dickinson Dunn J. Edwards Everett Gaskill | George R. Green Hall Hardy Harrelson Hawkins House Hoyt Hyde Ingram Kidd W. Lewellen Lindsey Lovell Lowery Maloch Maxwell McCrary McLean Moore Nickels Nix Overbey Patterson Pennartz | Perry Pierce Powers Pyle Ragland Rainey Reep Reynolds J. Roebuck T. Rogers Sample Saunders Shelby G. Smith L. Smith Stewart Summers Tyler Wagner Webb Wells B. Wilkins Williams Wills Word | No Adcock Baird Barnett J. Burris Carnine Carter Clemmer Dismang English Flowers Garner Glidewell Greenberg Hobbs Hopper D. Hutchinson Kerr King Lea S. Malone M. Martin Rice Slinkard Woods Absent J.R. Rogers |
AHS graduate takes tobacco fight to college
University of Arkansas freshman spearheads effort to make campus tobacco free
| By: Ashley Gardner - Texarkana Gazette - | Published: 12/21/2008 |
A freshman at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, Burns is a senator in student government and led the opposition against the creation of smoking areas on campus.
“The University of Arkansas went tobacco-free this past year. They have a campus-wide policy of no tobacco,” Burns said. “It’s been a big dispute on campus. Some folks wrote a bill ... trying to designate smoking areas on campus and allow ashtrays and smokeless tobacco.”
Burns didn’t wait for someone else to take up a cause. Aft...Log-In to view full story or view our Registration Guide
Educational Forum Texarkana Gazette 12/12/08
No butts about it: Program helping community beat smoking
| By: Ashley Gardner - Texarkana Gazette - | Published: 12/12/2008 |
The forum’s purpose was to highlight ways to improve the health of Arkansans.
“We live in the obesity and smoking corridor in the United States,” said Dr. Bill McIntyre, AHEC-SW director. “We have a lot of chronic diseases related to smoking and obesity. They’re avoidable. That’s why outreach is so important.”
BEAT is one of AHEC-SW’s outreach programs intent on improving pe...
Great American Smokeout Health Expo 11/20/08
Health expo focuses on kicking butts
| By: Ashley Gardner - Texarkana Gazette - | Published: 11/21/2008 |
“This is for public awareness. We’re celebrating our second Smokeout event,” said Delois Curry, Wadley’s patient and family coordinator. “The goal is to encourage people not to smoke and to focus on education about smoke-related illness.”
Cigarette smoking accounts for 30 percent of all cancer deaths and women who smoke are 20 times more likely to develop lung cancer than nonsmokers, according to one poster displayed ...
Energry Drinks
MillerCoors Agrees to Stop Selling Alcoholic Energy Drinks
December 18, 2008
News Report
A settlement between MillerCoors and a group of state attorneys general will spell the end of the brewer's foray into marketing alcoholic energy drinks.
The Wall Street Journal reported Dec. 18 that MillerCoors announced it will stop producing and selling caffeinated alcoholic beverages, including those sold under its popular Sparks brand. At the same time, company officials maintained that the AGs allegations that the drinks were marketed to young drinkers were "inaccurate."
"Attorneys general from around the country are gravely concerned about premixed alcoholic energy drinks because these products are dangerous and look and taste like popular nonalcoholic energy drinks," said Maine Attorney General Steve Rowe. "They're popular with young people who wrongly believe that the caffeine will counteract the intoxicating effects of the alcohol."
Sparks has emerged as the leading brand in the alcoholic energy drink niche market; MillerCoors said it will continue to sell a reformulated version of Sparks that does not include caffeine, taurine, guarana and ginseng.
The company also agreed to end some marketing strategies that the AGs said appeared to be aimed at underage audiences, including content on the Sparks website, the use of "plus and minus" symbols signifying energy, and an affiliation with an "air guitar" performer. David Rosenbloom, director of Join Together, said the settlement's marketing reforms are just as important as the product's reformulation.
"Removing caffeine and other stimulants from Sparks is an important step for public health because it removes a significant risk associated with the product," said Rosenbloom. "We hope that this settlement will really lead to the end of the company's efforts to sell alcopops to underage audiences with youth-oriented marketing strategies."
Steve Gardner, director of litigation for the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) -- which sued MillerCoors earlier this year over Sparks -- said that today's settlement nearly finishes off the product category. "Now that Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors have each agreed separately to discontinue caffeinated alcoholic drinks, this entire niche of products is all but shut down," he said.
Gardner called on the remaining, smaller companies producing caffeinated alcohol beverages to quickly follow suit. "It was a bad idea that never should have gotten as far as it did -- adding caffeine to sweetened, high-alcohol-content malt beverages and marketing them to young people via word-of-mouth and infantile web sites," said Gardner.
Previously, Anheuser-Busch reached a settlement with CSPI and state attorneys general in which it agreed to stop producing and marketing alcoholic energy drinks.
COMMENTS ON THIS ARTICLE:
Posted by Been There on 18 Dec 08 06:40 PM EST
C'mon- you have got to be kidding me. If you cannot see the importance of such a decision- look for another line of work! An alcohol industry giant, "big alcohol" itself conceded that the drink mixture is misguided. More important, they lost the argument, even if just this time, that they don't target youth. This is huge and only the beginning. The only way to keep the booze peddlers in line is to have legal precedent. It's an early gift under the tree.
Posted by BPC on 18 Dec 08 05:42 PM EST
I don't agree that this is a useless arguement. This discussion in the courts and therefore in the press has brought the whole issue of energy drinks (with or without alcohol) to the front burner. Corporate America has a responsibility to its customers, and marketing unsafe products is irreponisble. But thanks for tipping us all off to the dangers of non-alcoholic energy drinks in the process!
http://www.freewebs.com/dangersofenergydrinks/information.htm