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Show the naoir kicking HILl TOP TIMES 16 November 13. 19S7 WASHINGTON (AFPS- )- On Nov. 19, 1987, Americans on military installations across the United States and overseas will take part in the 11th annual Great American Smokeout. Since the first effort in 1976, which was billed by d the American Cancer Society as "an upbeat, effort to encourage smokers to give up cigarettes for 24 hours," the smokeout has attracted greater attention and more participants every good-nature- year. Department of Defense health promotion officials have worked closely with the American Cancer Society to plan this year's smokeout, which promises to be no exception to the "bigger and better" rule. Smokeout 1986 set an e record for partici23.8 million smokers who tried to quit pation. The g event represented more than during the 43 percent of the nation's 54.5 million smokers. This year's theme is "Take a Breather," and that's just what DOD hopes its smoking members all-tim- day-lon- SmoItDmg tffoe will do. The goal of the 1987 Great American Smokeout is to get at least one in every five smok- ers to give up cigarettes from midnight Wednesday to midnight Thursday, Nov. 19. The ideajs for smokers to prove to themselves they can abstain for 24 hours. In March 1986, former Secretary of Defense direcCaspar Weinberger issued a health promotion It behaviors. tive on smoking and other health risk and focused in large part on smoking prevention cessation programs. As a result of this directive, all branches of the military have been actively planning new smoking control initiatives for. military personnel, retirees, their families and civilian employees. The American Cancer Society has offered trainas ing to military and DOD civilian personnel smokconduct to ongoing "Fresh Start" facilitators in the installations clinics at cessation military ing United States and overseas. According to the 1985 worldwide DOD survey on cigarette use in the armed forces, smoking in all services at all paygrades averaged 46 percent. Although the 1986 figures for all services are incomplete, the trend is encouraging. Smokers in the Air Force in 1986 were down to 31 percent (from 39 percent in 1985). The Army dropped to 41 percent, compared to 52 percent the year before: In 1985, 54 percent of Navy personnel and 43 percent of Marine Corps personnel smoked. When released, the 1986 figures are expected to be lower. Although DOD is doing what it can to discourage from starting and to support smokers' efforts to quit, cigarettes are still sold in military commissaries at prices 26 to 42 percent lower than civilian store prices because they are not subject to state and local excise taxes. However, as of October 1987, overseas commissaries will no longer sell tobacco products to anyone under 18. non-smoke- rs cause of mamy problems More than 320,000 will die from diseases linked to smoking - Here WASHINGTON (AFPS) are some of the latest tobacco and health-relatefindings, from the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs) and the American Cancer Society: More than 320,000 Americans will die prematurely this year of diseases linked to smoking. The Office of the U.S. Surgeon General estimates that 60,000 Americans will die this year from chronic obstructive respiratory conditions such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Between 80 and 90 percent of these deaths are attributable to smoking and, therefore, can be considered preventable and premature. 0 According to a 1985 survey by the National Center for Health Statistics, 43 percent of black men and 33 percent of black women smoke, versus 35 percent and 30 percent of white Great American d TAKE a SmoCxoD" A BREATHER survey, smoking rates ranged from about 14 percent in the Air Force to about 23 percent in the Army. The same survey found the highest rates of smoking in all branches of the armed forces in pay grades E-- 7 through E-- At these levels, 49 percent of Marine Corps personnel, 50 percent of Air Force personnel, 54 percent of Navy personnel and 63 percent of Army personnel smoked in 1985. DOD permits designated smok in eating facilities, common areas ing work areas and waiting rooms of medical treatment facilities only where space and ventilation are adequate to provide a healthful environment for 9. non-smoker- s. Smoking increases the risk of stroke, according to Framingham Heart Study researchers, who published their findings this year in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Smoking is on the decline. Ameri . AMERICA! f soam" 3? Admit corattc-ac-t I, smoking prevention package for preschoolers. Called "Starting Free-G- ood Air For Me," the package includes hand puppets and fun activities in an upbeat prevention program for children aged 3 to 5. This is connected with the services' goals to be smoke-fre- e by the year 2000 and to have a smoke-fre- e Class of 2000 (chilin dren born 1982). Smokeless tobacco (snuff and chewing tobacco) is linked to oral cancer. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, the use of smokeless tobacco products increased steadily from 295 million cans in 1978 to 481 million cans in 1985. In 1986, a National Institutes of Health paper noted a disturbing trend many smokeless tobacco users were young. Some local studies have reported use by as many as 40 percent of high school boys and one state found significant use by kindergarten-ag- e . ON NOVEMBER 19 percent. For black female smokers 5.3 percent smoke 25 or more cigarettes a day, whereas for white women it's 21.7 percent. Smoking is less prevalent among officers in all branches of the service. Among officers, according to a 1985 I SOCIETY" SMOKEOUT A men and women, respectively. However, black smokers tend to smoke less than white smokers. Only 11.6 percent of black males consume 25 or more cigarettes a day; the same consumption for white males is 36.3 Adopff cans smoked 584 billion cigarettes in 1985, down from 594 billion in 1984, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Formal military child-car- e probe will all services in using a grams AMERICAN CANCER children. Following a 1986 federal law requiring smokeless tobacco products to carry warning labels about the health hazards of their use, the largest manufacturers' snuff sales have declined by 3.7 percent. VJhaO's cosfl of smoking? dollars thanbillionsense health IYIod-- o Consider the cost of smoking not the cost of cigarettes, but the costs of promoting smoking (print name) do hereby agree to adopt d (print name) a known smoker, on Nov. is 1987. It my sworn duty to provide every kind 19, of support and encouragement to my adopted smoker in helping himher to stop smoking (at least for that aforementioned period). I will provide, as a minimum, a goody bag (full of gum, suckers, hard candy, etc.) to my adopted smoker for the day to help himher kick the habit. 24-ho- ur (Signature of Adoptor) (Signature of Adoptee) Witnessed this vs. the cost of treating persons for cigarette-relatehealth problems. The tobacco industry will spend more than $2 billion annually in adver- day of November 1987 by: tising its product, based on Federal Trade Commission statistics, according to American Heart Association officials. Consider the hidden costs: Cigarette smoking costs some $65 million annually in health care, loss of economic productivity due to poor health and treatment of cigarette-relateillness and Medicare through Medicaid programs. This $65 billion breaks down d Capt. Victoria L. Gestring Hill AFB Health Promotion Coordinator in $17.8 in care, $43 billion in loss of economic productivi- ty; and $4.2 billion in MedicareMedicaid expenditures. O Unmeasurable are the emotional and economic costs to families due to the death of a smoker. An estimated 350,000 Americans, almost 1,000 per day, die each year of cigarette-relate- d dis- eases, including cardi- ovascular and lung diseases and cancer. The AHA has joined with the American Cancer Society and the American Lung Association in the Tobacco Free Young America Project in an all-ocampaign to spread the message of the true costs of smoking. ut . ScnotxoouQ is 10 While 1987 marks the 11th Great American Smokeout, it is the 10th nationwide smokeout. The first mass movement by smokers to give up smoking was led by Lynn R. Smith, editor of the Monticello (Minn:) Times, in 1974. for Smith's idea, called "Don't Smoke," spread throughout Minnesota. In 1976, the first Great American Smokeout was observed in California. The following year it went nationwide. Now. smokeouts are held around the world, although the names and dates differ in various countries D-Da- y , Snuff iff ouft A film depicting the dangers of using smokeless tobaccoor snuff is available at the base film library. Titled Smokeless Tobacco It Can Snuff You Out, the film is a graphic account of a young man's death from oral cancer caused by his use of snuff. The film may be' checked out from Ginny Woodard, base film library, Ext. 77140. |