Annual smokeout day
Students to learn risks of smoking, benefits of quitting
Becky Brandenburg
Staff Reporter

Today is the 27th annual Great American Smokeout, an event geared toward educating the public on the health risks associated with tobacco use and the benefits of quitting.

TCU’s Hyperfrogs, sponsored by the Alcohol and Drug Education Center, are manning a Smokeout program from noon to 5 p.m. today in the lobby of the University Recreation Center.

Hyperfrog Rachel Walters, a freshman advertising and public relations major, said the program will offer lots of information, brochures, giveaways and surveys.

“It will be a positive event where students can get information about what smoking does and how they can quit,” Walters said.

Freshman premajor Shannon Chambers, another Hyperfrog volunteer, said she has family members who smoke and respects that quitting is a personal decision, but that students should have all the information about smoking and what it does to the body.

Cigarette smoking is responsible for 30 percent of all cancer deaths and 87 percent of lung cancer deaths according to the Cancer Prevention & Early Detection’s 2003 Cancer Facts & Figures list. The same statistics show that secondhand smoke may be responsible for 3,000 lung cancer deaths and almost 40,000 cases of heart disease in non-smoking adults.

According to the 2000 National Health Interview Survey, there were an estimated 46.5 million adult cigarette smokers in the United States. The survey also indicates that 80 percent of smokers began smoking before age 18, and more than one-third of them began smoking daily by age 18.

“I started smoking at 14,” said Rumen Cvetkov, a junior music performance major from Bulgaria. “Everyone smokes back home, in the coffee shops, restaurants ... it is hard to quit when everyone around you is smoking.”

Cvetkov said when he came to the United States, fewer people smoked, making it easier for him to quit.
“It has improved my health and my viola performance,” Cvetkov said.