March 15, 2010: The Allergy and Asthma Foundation of America sends me an email announcing that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) releases powerful, in your face, almost painful to watch Tips from Former Smokers ad campaign to end smoking and second-hand smoke exposure. Oh and it is not pretty. The campaign features real people, with real stories of suffering from smoking. The goal of the CDC is to rock our world and make us stop and think, “OMG! This can really happen to me or someone I love-are these really the long-term effects of smoking and/or second-hand smoke?”
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March 18, 2010: I realize that of the 12 adults featured in this ad started smoking in their teens.
March 19, 2010: I feel frustrated that we live in a very intelligent, developed country in which scientific and medically supported information tells us to stop smoking before our bodies are damaged and yet we allow cigarettes to remain legal and second-hand smoke to flow in areas of folks not smoking (think entry way to buildings). We allow teenagers to possess cigarettes fully knowing that their brains are not developed. We sit on the side lines and watch them make incredibly horrible choices that eventually, as tax payers, we may need to cover when a catastrophic illness engulfs their life.
Visit the CDC’s Tips from Former Smokers website to see other insanely sobering stories!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eUOjSTZMIE] Jessica’s ad is a great reminder to all of us that by allowing smoking in restaurants or public places, her son, just like my son, can have an asthma attack and up in the Emergency Room gasping for air from simply walking into a building where smokers are enjoying their break. Now, why couldn’t we place ashtrays at the back door of the building and not the front door?Aren’t we just too intelligent to keep on smoking when we have this much information at our finger tips? I can understand addiction and folks who are knee-deep in smoking, but allowing teens to legally smoke-really?
I never about this disease until I saw this ad:
Even though I don’t like looking at these ads since they are not pretty, I am happy for this campaign if they can deter a teenager or adult from smoking, you know the person: someone who may want to walk this planet a tad longer.
In case you’re wondering my stance on tobacco use is:
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- if you’re smoking, please get help-no good will come from this
- if you’re smoking, please do so in the privacy of your own home, my kids can’t risk an Emergency Room visit
- if you’re not smoking, fight for clean air and vote in support of stricter clean air law in your state
- if you know someone who is smoking and you care about them, offer support and information, truly they may not know what is coming down the pike
- if you know a teenage who is smoking, do everything in your power to get them help to stop, they don’t understand that tomorrow does arrive and it’s going to be ugly
Visit my QUIT SMOKING page for links to resources to help yourself or a loved one to quit smoking.
Hope your Monday is smoke-free or that you make a life saving difference today and ask a friend or loved one to STOP SMOKING-Caroline
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One of the hardest things I find about managing both life threatening food allergies and asthma is talking to others. I hate to be the one that might be perceived as demanding, pushing or for asking too much. What I now know, fourteen years later, is that honest, clear information presented with kindness works!..