"Teen Smokers Speak Out"

The Teen Smoking Survey, released November 1 by the Center for Disease Control, reports that the youth smoking rate remains much too high.  The CDC recommends that aggressive anti-smoking campaigns are needed more than ever to prevent youths from smoking.

A new approach to keep kids from smoking, “Teen Smokers Speak Out” by Prevention Video Corp., is 17-minutes of clips of ten teen smokers from six states.  The teens are unable to quit smoking.  They talk about the immediate, negative effects of cigarette smoking from their own experiences.  The video is to be shown to pre-teens to discourage them from even starting to smoke.  The pre-teens learn how addicting, costly and functionally detrimental cigarettes are, right at the start, a powerful message from the teens they want to emulate.  

Ron Peterson, of Prevention Video, is touring with the free video to present it to libraries, schools, parents and teachers.  Prevention Video, a non-profit organization, is a team of volunteers dedicated to preventing youths from smoking, because most of the volunteers themselves have lung diseases caused by smoking cigarettes.  The team members are from all around the U.S.  They are scheduling, conducting the video tour and arranging publicity through e-mail.