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On a day when The Associated Press is reporting that scientists have pinpointed a genetic link that makes people more likely to get hooked on tobacco, teens throughout the valley were working to clean up smokers' mess.
Members of OUTRAGE swarmed area parks on Tuesday, sweeping cigarette butts. The group works primarily to protect children from the effects of cigarettes, including second-hand smoke. According to the American Lung Association, secondhand smoke is responsible for as many as 300,000 lower-respiratory-tract infections in infants and results in up to 15,000 hospitalizations each year.
OUTRAGE members found most of the cigarette butts around playground equipment. Their plan is to take the disgusting fruits of their labors around to city councils and ask that smoking be banned in all public areas.
According to the genetic study, those with a biological disposition to smoking have an 80 percent greater chance of lung cancer than a smoker without the variants, the researchers reported via AP. And those same smokers on average light up two extra cigarettes a day and have a much harder time quitting.
MESSAGES FROM THE MEMBERS OF OUTRAGE:
• "To me, it's ridiculous that people think it's OK to smoke around children." -- Adult coordinator Jen Tischler
• "[Kids] are supposed to be having fun ... but they don't know what they're breathing in is dangerous." -- Meagan Adams, 15
• "This is stuff you wouldn't eat, but it's pretty much what you're doing." -- Brianna Tello, 14, about the chemicals found in cigarettes
• "I don't want other kids to think it's alright to walk around smoking." -- Zach Gillen, 15
OUTRAGE is open to youth ages 12-18. For more information, call Jen Tischler at 851-7096.
ABOUT CIGARETTE BUTTS:
• About 4.3 trillion cigarette butts are littered every year around the world. Smokers in the U.S. account for more than 250 billion cigarette butts.
• Almost 1 in 3 cigarette butts end up as litter.
• It can take up to 12 years for a cigarette butt to break down.
• Cigarette butts can leach chemicals such as cadmium, lead and arsenic into the marine environment within an hour of contact with water.
• Cigarette butts have been found in the stomachs of fish, whales, birds and other marine animals, which leads to ingestion of hazardous chemicals and digestive blockages.
Source: ButtsOut.net
ABOUT SECOND-HAND SMOKE:
• Second-hand smoke has been classified by the Environmental Protection Agency as a known cause of cancer in humans.
• Second-hand smoke exposure causes disease and premature death in children and adults who do not smoke. Second-hand smoke contains hundreds of chemicals known to be toxic or carcinogenic, including formaldehyde, benzene, vinyl chloride, arsenic ammonia and hydrogen cyanide.
• Second-hand smoke causes approximately 3,400 lung-cancer deaths and 46,000 heart-disease deaths in adult nonsmokers in the United States each year.
• Nonsmokers exposed to second-hand smoke at work are at increased risk for adverse health effects.
• Second-hand smoke is especially harmful to young children. It is responsible for between 150,000 and 300,000 lower-respiratory-tract infections in infants and children under 18 months of age, resulting in between 7,500 and 15,000 hospitalizations each year, and causes 430 Sudden Infant Death Syndrome deaths in the United States annually.
• Second-hand smoke exposure may cause buildup of fluid in the middle ear, resulting in 790,000 physician office visits per year.
• In the United States, 21 million, or 35 percent of children, live in homes where residents or visitors smoke in the home on a regular basis.
• Approximately 50-75 percent of children in the United States have detectable levels of cotinine, the breakdown product of nicotine in the blood.
• The current Surgeon General's Report concluded that scientific evidence indicates that there is no risk-free level of exposure to second-hand smoke.
Source: American Lung Association
UTAH SMOKING LAWS:
• You must be 19 years of age or older to buy tobacco products in Utah. It is also illegal to buy products for an underage individual.
• Utah mandates that tobacco compliance checks be conducted four times a year at every tobacco retailer in order to reduce the number of illegal sales to underage youth.
• Smoking is prohibited in all enclosed indoor places of public access, i.e. public buildings, stores and restaurants. There are some exceptions to that rule.
• There is no smoking within 25 feet of an entrance, window or air intake vent of any building.
• Many cities around the state have instigated their own laws and statutes. Davis County is the only one to act as an entire county.
Source: Utah County Health Department |
