WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP?

August 9th , 2001- Surgeon General David Satcher hopes to cut smoking in the US by half within a Decade. Smoking rates could be cut by 50 percent overall if all the proven anti-smoking measures covered in the report were implemented, he said.

Community
     Develop an anti-tobacco advertising campaign and request free print placement and air time. Use models and premises that appeal to youth and reflect their cultures. Incorporate anti-tobacco education into all youth programs. Incorporate anti-smoking strategies to use with children into all types of parent programs.

     Provide anti-smoking education along with other services in adolescent clinics. Provide addiction recovery services to adolescent smokers. Prevent the sale of cigarettes to youth and the display of tobacco promotions. Develop leaders and promote community bonding, cultural pride, and bicultural competence by youth.

Family
     Establish homes as smoke-free places. Do not smoke, if possible, or at least provide an anti-smoking education. Provide children with good supervision and support. Remind older children that they are role models for younger family members, and that many youth begin to smoke because their older siblings do. Take a parenting skills course to learn how to provide an anti-smoking and refusal skills education at home.

Other
     Most teenagers do not smoke and it is okay to refuse to smoke. Point out that fewer than 20 percent of teenagers smoke regularly, and in California only 5 percent do so. Youth who begin to smoke because their peers do are really succumbing to perceived pressures from a minority. Help teenagers develop "refusal skills" to give them the courage to refuse to engage in behaviors they may not choose.