Carrie Stambaugh/The Independent
Ashland — Anti-tobacco advocates saw some positive results of their efforts Wednesday morning at a local school.
When four classes of fourth- and sixth-graders at Charles Russell Elementary School taking part in the Tobacco Free Academy were asked how many live in a home where someone smokes or uses tobaccom only about 50 percent of hands went up.
Organizers gasped.
“That’s a huge improvement,” said Holly West, one of the Ashland-Boyd County Health Department’s tobacco prevention coordinators. Typically, she said, “around 85 percent normally raise their hands. It’s a shock when you come and see all the hands that are raised. It’s definitely an eye opener.”
When asked how many students know a smoker, about half of the remaining hands went up, however.
The Tobacco Free Academy is run by the health department and volunteers from King’s Daughters Medical Center. The program features a short lecture and hands-on activities and is aimed at preventing students from ever trying cigarettes or tobacco products.
Students are taught about the health dangers of using tobacco and the prevalence of disasterous health consequences in the community. They are also made aware of advertising and marketing campaigns targeting them.
Todd Kranpitz, KDMC’s director of radiology, has been volunteering to teach part of the program for more than five years.
He uses a slide show chock full of facts along with the story of his personal experiencess — Kranpitz grew up in a household where both parents smoked — to reach the youngsters.
“I try to make it personal,” he said. “It’s the truth.” The students “get our best knowledge that we have at the time.”
Kranpitz said he sees patients at the hospital every day struggling with diseases like lung cancer caused by smoking. He doesn’t want to see future generations suffer.
“It looks terrible,” sixth-grader Jonathan Litteral, 12, said after viewing the presentation, which featured X-rays of lung tumors.
Photographs of individuals that show the effects of smoking and other tobacco products on appearance — new to the academy this year — were very effective at getting the message across to Litteral, he said.
“I’ve seen a scary picture of a lady in 1998 and 2002,” he said. “She looked totally different.”
Litteral said the topic hits close to home — both his grandparents and other relatives smoke. Although he plans never to smoke, Litteral said, he won’t approach his relatives about kicking the habit.
“I just know it isn’t going to work. I know it, but I wish they would,” he said.
Kranpitz said he realizes not all the children will make the choice not to smoke or be able to convince their family members their habits not only affect them but the children’s health.
Sixth-grader Abigail Hamilton, 11, said she is trying to get her father, a smoker, to quit.
“I tell him every time you smoke, it takes 11 minutes off your life,” she said, adding she learned that from the academy two years ago. Now, she said, she’ll tell him there are 4,000 harmful chemicals in smoke, a fact she picked up Wednesday.
CARRIE STAMBAUGH can be reached at cstambaugh@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2653.,
