Local Students Participate in Kick Butts Day 2019
Tuesday March 19, 2019
Organized by the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, Kick Butts Day encourages and empowers youth to stand up, speak out, and seize control against Big Tobacco.
The 24th annual Kick Butts Day, a day of national activism, will be held this year on March 20th.
Tobacco kills 1,300 Americans every single day. Big Tobacco has been increasingly targeting teenagers with national marketing campaigns, and now, in the midst of the vaping epidemic, advocating for change is more important than ever. Though progress has been made in reducing cigarette smoking over the years, new issues continue to emerge. E-cigarette use now surpasses every other kind of adolescent tobacco use. Most e-cigarettes contain nicotine. Nicotine is highly addictive and can harm adolescent brain development, which continues into the early to mid-20s. Many young people who use e-cigarettes also smoke cigarettes. There is some evidence that young people who use e-cigarettes may be more likely to smoke cigarettes in the future. Specifically, a 2018 National Academy of Medicine report found that there was some evidence that e-cigarette use increases the frequency and amount of cigarette smoking in the future.
The Branch-Hillsdale-St. Joseph Community Health Agency, the Hillsdale County Substance Abuse Coalition, the Branch County Substance Abuse Task Force, and the Youth Engaged in Prevention Clubs from Coldwater and Reading High Schools will be at the Michigan State Capitol Rotunda along with other youth groups across Michigan for an afternoon of advocacy. “Our teens are a powerful part of the solution to reducing tobacco use,” says Kelley Mapes, Community Health Educator of the Branch-Hillsdale-St. Joseph Community Health Agency. “Local MiPhy data for 2017-18 in Branch and Hillsdale Counties shows that almost 50% of students report that it is easy to get cigarettes and over 30% of students have used an e-cigarette in the last 30 days.”
The best way to quit tobacco is to never start! For the 70% of American tobacco users who want to quit, however, there is hope. For help with quitting tobacco of all forms, contact the Michigan Tobacco Quitline at 1-800-784-8669 or talk with your healthcare provider. For more information on the national initiative visit the Kick Butts Day website at www.kickbuttsday.org.
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The Branch-Hillsdale-St. Joseph Community Health Agency is committed to promoting wellness, preventing disease, providing health care, and protecting the environment.