SEMO ATHLETE TO TELL STUDENTS NOT TO START SMOKING HABIT

College student Stacy Stanley never picked up the smoking habit and she credits that to the sports she played in junior high and high school."As a softball player, I never touched drugs or cigarettes because I had to keep my body healthy," said the 26-year-old Southeast Missouri State University health and leisure major, who with four other SEMO students, will take an anti-smoking message to May Greene fourth-graders on Friday as part of Great American Smokeout activities this week.

She's just beginning to realize how sports participation saved her from cigarette addiction."There have been studies that students involved in extracurricular activities and who have close relationships with their families are less likely to smoke at an early age," said Denny Derenzy, assistant chief at the Missouri Department of Health's Bureau of Health Promotion.

Learning the reasons young people start smoking or don't start is important in trying to keep them from picking up this habit that can lead to health problems that cost Americans more than $100 billion a year.

The health risks could be even greater because tobacco is considered a gateway drug, Derenzy said. "The earlier someone starts smoking, the higher the probability that he or she will go on to use illicit drugs and alcohol," he said.

And many children do start early in Missouri, said Jill Venezian, a prevention specialist with Southeast Missouri State University Community 2000 Prevention Resource Center. She said according to Missouri Department of Health figures that one-half of all the state's middle school students have used some form of tobacco.

April Goode, media relations manager for the Heartland Division of the American Cancer Society, said most of that organization's efforts are being directed at middle school and younger students."We've found the most effective way to decrease the number of smokers is to concentrate on the ages when they are most likely to start," Goode said. "If you can keep them from picking up the habit before they turn 18, it's very likely they'll never start smoking at all."While a 35-year-old might be induced into quitting smoking by thoughts of death or disability at age 55, to a 16-year-old that seems very far down the line, she said.

Information about health risks, lung and mouth cancers and "all the gross things" smoking does to the body has an impact, creates awareness and gets attention, Derenzy said, but it's often not enough in itself to keep teens from lighting up.

Take Charles Bowman, a 19-year-old Southeast Missouri State University student who was smoking outside the student center last week. He is in an age group troubling to the American Cancer Society because a Centers for Disease Control's recent report found that the percent of smokers ages 18 to 24 is on the increase. The report found that from 1990 to 1997 the percentage of smokers in that group increased from 24.5 to 28.7 percent.

Bowman knows smoking is not healthy, he's aware of the many detrimental health effects, and he plans on stopping, someday."But it helps me when I'm bored," said Bowman, who began smoking at age 16. "I do want to quit eventually, but not now."Health specialists bring in other information that is more relevant to a 15-year-old considering smoking.

Venezian said making teens aware of the cost of cigarettes can be a deterrent for many. She said it helps to make teens aware of how much it costs to smoke one pack of cigarettes a day for a year, then show them what else they could do with that money.

With the $1,040.25 it would cost for a 365-day supply of cigarettes that cost $2.85 a pack, a teen could pay for 80 CDs, 160 movie tickets, 231 hamburger dinners and 347 video rentals."School kids look at that stack of CDs, and I think it hits home that that money is going up in smoke," Venezian said.

Goode said the American Cancer Society has found that the best way to reach teens is to show them how the tobacco industry is trying to manipulate them."Kids hate being manipulated," she said. So the Cancer Society works to show how images in tobacco advertisements and cigarette placement in films can give a false impression that smoking is cool or glamorous.

Stanley thinks it is effective to show young people the immediate cosmetic effects of smoking in addition to long-range health effects.

The message to teens that cigarette smoking will make your breath stink and stain your fingers and teeth is something that will affect them immediately, Stanley said."They can smell the odor right now rather than a health problem they might have 30 years from now," she said.

Programs associated with the Cancer Society's Great American Smokeout, which is Thursday, will use many of these strategies to reach youngsters, but educators encourage parents to start early to raise children who can fight the peer pressure and glamorization of smoking.

SMOKEOUT EVENTSFollowing are activities planned for the American Cancer Society's Great American Smokeout.

Disc jockeys from K103 and representatives from Southeast Missouri Hospital and St. Francis Medical Center will present an anti-smoking program Monday at Franklin School, Tuesday at Perryville Middle School, Wednesday at Oak Ridge Elementary and Thursday at Alma Schrader School.

At Cape Central Junior High on Thursday, students will create "The Wall," a large poster full of names of people students have known who have died from or are suffering from a smoking-related illnesses. Dr. Jerry Driver will speak on the harmful effects of tobacco use. Students will participate in a "smokescream," where they can scream out against smoking.

Christy Sprengel of Caring Communities and the Cape Girardeau County Health Department will speak on Thursday to seventh-graders at Schultz Middle School about the hazards of tobacco use.

Students will build a smoke machine and participate in other anti-smoking activities at Millersville School on Thursday.

Students from Southeast Missouri State University contemporary drug class will present an anti-smoking program for Theresa Givens' fourth-grade class at May Greene School on Friday.