WTNH News Channel 8 / News / 1999

	Teens Get Anti-Smoking Message at Young Age (West Haven-WTNH) _ Connecticut will receive more than $3.5 billion from the tobacco industry settlement over the next 25 years. The state legislature will decide how to spend that money. But anti-smoking advocates say teaching kids about the dangers of smoking should be the top priority, and the younger the better. News Channel 8's Ned Berkowitz reports. Most of the students in a fifth grade class at Washington Magnet School in West Haven are about the age when Connecticut kids begin to smoke. But most of them say smoking is something they'll never do. Ned: "Have you ever tried a cigarette?" Brian Link, 11 Years Old:"No." Ned: "How come?" Link: "Well, I just think it's stupid to smoke." No matter what they say, the average age kids start smoking in Connecticut is 11.7 years, among the youngest in the nation. And they're getting even younger. Maryellen Bolcer, Teen Smoke Stoppers: "Teenagers were telling me they were starting at the age of 12-13. what I'm seeing now is that teenagers are starting at 11, some of them are even starting at 10." Bolcer, of St. Vincent Hospital's Teen Smoke Stoppers, says she has talked to 10,000 kids about the dangers of smoking, and helped about 1,000 to quit. To get teens to kick the habit, you really have to grab their attention. A teaching aid Bolcer uses is 2 lungs, one of a healthy non-smoker and the other of an emphysemic smoker. The difference is startling. Bolcer says kids who don't stop smoking by 18 are likely to smoke for at least another 20 years. The biggest factors, she says, are peer pressure and boredom. Bolcer: "Teenagers are giving each other their cigarettes. It's not even because their parents are smoking as much as it used to be. It's because their friends are smoking." 35% of Connecticut high school students smoke, but Sherri Lundgren says other kids won't make her start. Sherri Lundgren, 11 Years Old: "I feel like they might get sick when they get older and stuff." Ned: "It's not something that you'd want to try? Lundgren: "No, because I know someone that's dying from it right now and I just don't want that to happen to me." Today's News Page. WTNH Home Page. ©1999 WTNH-TV A LIN station.

Teens Get Anti-Smoking Message at Young Age
(West Haven-WTNH) _ Connecticut will receive more than $3.5 billion from the tobacco industry settlement over the next 25 years. The state legislature will decide how to spend that money. But anti-smoking advocates say teaching kids about the dangers of smoking should be the top priority, and the younger the better.
News Channel 8's Ned Berkowitz reports.

Most of the students in a fifth grade class at Washington Magnet School in West Haven are about the age when Connecticut kids begin to smoke. But most of them say smoking is something they'll never do.

Ned: "Have you ever tried a cigarette?" Brian Link, 11 Years Old:"No." Ned: "How come?" Link: "Well, I just think it's stupid to smoke."

No matter what they say, the average age kids start smoking in Connecticut is 11.7 years, among the youngest in the nation. And they're getting even younger.

Maryellen Bolcer, Teen Smoke Stoppers: "Teenagers were telling me they were starting at the age of 12-13. what I'm seeing now is that teenagers are starting at 11, some of them are even starting at 10."

Bolcer, of St. Vincent Hospital's Teen Smoke Stoppers, says she has talked to 10,000 kids about the dangers of smoking, and helped about 1,000 to quit.

To get teens to kick the habit, you really have to grab their attention. A teaching aid Bolcer uses is 2 lungs, one of a healthy non-smoker and the other of an emphysemic smoker. The difference is startling.

Bolcer says kids who don't stop smoking by 18 are likely to smoke for at least another 20 years. The biggest factors, she says, are peer pressure and boredom.

Bolcer: "Teenagers are giving each other their cigarettes. It's not even because their parents are smoking as much as it used to be. It's because their friends are smoking."

35% of Connecticut high school students smoke, but Sherri Lundgren says other kids won't make her start.

Sherri Lundgren, 11 Years Old: "I feel like they might get sick when they get older and stuff."
Ned: "It's not something that you'd want to try?
Lundgren: "No, because I know someone that's dying from it right now and I just don't want that to happen to me."

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