Parker Live News from the Parker Strip since 2009.
La Paz County Health Department Press Release
The Great American Smokeout is a day when smokers are encouraged to quit for a day, quit for life. This year members of Arizona’s statewide anti-tobacco youth coalition Students Taking a New Direction, better known as STAND, will take that one step further urging Arizonans to ‘decide today for life-long-strong lungs.’
In partnership with the American Lung Association (ALA), STAND will be holding events throughout Arizona not only promoting the health impact of living and working in a smoke free environment. STAND members are partnering with members of the ALA’s Better Breather’s club to provide interactive demonstrations on how smoking can affect your lungs.
“When it comes to smoking and the health effects, it is usually cancer related problems that you hear about,” said Lee Ann Anderson of the La Paz County Health Department’s Public Health Education and Prevention Program. “We want to also remind people that smoking affects your lungs too. But not just your lungs, it affects those around you too.”
STAND members will also be showcasing their efforts to make their community smoke free by passing out quit kits at an informational booth at BlueWater Resort and Casino November 21st from 9:00am-2:00pm, and the Teen Solutions Coalition will be promoting tobacco prevention at Wallace Junior High from 12:00-1:30pm.
Community prep will also occur as coalitions across the state will display pledge walls in high traffic areas for smokers and non-smokers alike to either pledge to quit for the day or to never start. To further promote and draw attention to their cause, STAND members will change their personal and coalition Facebook profile photo to a singular image.
Participants are members of STAND, Students Taking a New Direction, a statewide coalition of students ages 13-18 who work to not only raise awareness about the dangers of tobacco use, but urge elected officials at all levels of government to treat cigarettes as hazardous materials – including creating regulations for storage, transport, sale and disposal. www.standaz.com
The Great American Smokeout is organized nationally by the American Cancer Society. It is held the on the third Thursday of November each year. In Arizona, it is supported by the Arizona Department of Health Services Bureau of Tobacco & Chronic Disease. The first Great American Smokeout was held in 1977.
I started smoking about 1960. I had walked down to the Elk’s Club to see Buni. When I left there was a partial package of KOOL cigarettes on a bracket and that was my start. To make a long story short, I was a 2 pack a day man for almost 20 years. Ran a bank branch for VNB in the 70’s and 80’s in Peoria, AZ. Had a Sun City Client named “Henry T.”. He was dying of mouth, throat, and lung cancer and bummed my last cigarette off me. He knew he was dying, as I did also since I was helping with his estate. He fired it up, took a big drag and wheezed: “Joe, don’t go buy anymore!”. when he left, I started down the hallway to go to the shopping center behind the bank to buy some more, but stopped suddenly and said to myself: “I want to be around to see my kids grow up.”. Never went to the store and never had another cigarette. A month later I was gong to call Henry T. and tell him I had been smoke-free for a month and got busy and then his housekeeper called me and he had passed away that afternoon. Have now been smoke-free for 36 years and lungs are great with 98% saturation. Last pack I bought cost .65 Cents. Have told that story many times and a lot of folks have told me later that they had quit after hearing that story.