TO THE EDITOR:
March 25 marked the 14th annual Kick Butts Day where kids across North Carolina rallied against tobacco. Members of Tobacco Cessation Advocates decided to promote the day by having a display at Polk Place" specifically at the flag pole.
The message was simple and blunt.
""How much would you pay to die? Smokers pay two times more health insurance and on average will die 12 years earlier than the nonsmoker.""
Body bags were labeled with fake $100 bills taped to the outside.
One smoker who was upset at our display commented on how he felt we were treating smokers like children.
His argument is that ""most smokers know about health effects and choose to take risks on their health"" and studies show that secondhand smoke doesn't harm anyone as long as it was a certain distance away.""
When I came back" all the body bags were removed and the sign was defaced with cigarette burn holes. As a nonconfrontational person I realized that this display is out of character for me.
But being a pharmacy student I can't escape the reality of the health effects of smoking and was shocked that such an honest and truthful message would be met by anger and destruction.
When talking with elderly people often times I am saddened by those who have emphysema from years of tobacco. I wonder if they have any regrets about smoking because it affects their breathing many years later.
Yes the reason someone smokes is multifactorial but just think — how do I want my quality of life to be 1020 50 years from now?
Sandy Zuccarello
Graduate Coordinator Tobacco Cessation Advocates