Rockland County teens are sick of seeing the abundance of cigarette and tobacco advertising and are spreading this message on World No Tobacco Day.
“We have a message for the tobacco industry—we’ve seen enough tobacco marketing,” said Timothy R., 15. “The stores in our neighborhood are filled with tobacco posters and ads, free give-away signs, and all the cigarette packs behind the counter. We are bombarded every day by images of how cool smoking is and it makes kids like us want to start smoking.”
Teens from the Rockland County Department of Health’s Reality Check program and POW’R Against Tobacco Community Partnership will enjoy interactive Tobacco Trivia games for prizes and will be handing out information on tobacco marketing to shoppers at the Palisades Center Mall on Friday, May 31. The event will be held from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. by the concierge/customer services desk near the main entrance of the mall.
World No Tobacco Day is sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO) to bring awareness to the dangers of tobacco use. WHO says tobacco kills almost six million in the world annually—600,000 of which who are non-smokers, but were exposed to second-hand smoke.
This year’s World No Tobacco Day theme, “ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship,” seeks to affect people’s awareness of cigarette smoking and tobacco use.
“Use World No Tobacco Day as a day to become smoke-free,” said Rockland’s Acting Commissioner of Health Kathleen M. Henry, R.N., M.A. “The benefits of quitting starts within 20 minutes of putting out your last cigarette and last a lifetime.”
Rockland County’s “Put It Out” programs offers low cost, personalized one-on-one guidance to help locals to quit smoking. The program also offers eight weeks of nicotine replacement products to those who are medically eligible. Call (845) 364-2651 for more information or visit www.putitoutrockland.com.
The New York State Smokers Quit Line offers phone counseling and two weeks of free nicotine replacement patches to callers stop smoking. For more on this program call 1 (866) 697-8487 or go to www.nysmokefree.com.
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