Substance Abuse
Tobacco is a substance of abuse. Nicotine, the key ingredient in tobacco products, is recognized as an addictive drug. Smoking kills more people than alcohol AIDS, car accidents, illegal drugs, murders, and suicides combined - and thousands more die from other tobacco-related causes, such as fires caused by smoking, exposure to secondhand smoke, and smokeless tobacco use.
The IAFP and the AAFP advocate comprehensive tobacco control legislation. The agreement reached by 46 state attorney generals and the tobacco industry represents just one step in a journey that won't be complete until comprehensive tobacco control legislation is passed. The money from the tobacco companies should be seen as payment for past wrongs that must be invested to reduce future tobacco-related harms. One approach could be to enlist all public health advocates - not just anti-tobacco organizations - to work together on broader, far-reaching public health efforts. For example, each state could put its money in a trust fund and use the interest to pay for public health programs. The principal would remain even after the settlement money stops flowing. In addition, the Academy encourages state and, national legislators to develop health education programs to be funded by a dedicated tax on cigarettes. Likewise, the Academy opposes federal price support of the tobacco industry.
Children and adolescents are of particular concern due to increased risk for addiction and passive exposure. Over the past ten years the number of children under 19 who, become daily smokers each year has increased by over half a million. Roughly one of every three children who becomes a regular smoker will die from smoking-related causes. In light of this, the Academy recommends anti-tobacco education for an elementary and secondary students.
TAR WARS: The Academy created this school health tobacco and smoking prevention program in response to this health crisis. TAR WARS teaches children and adolescents to identify social influences to tobacco use, counters tobacco advertising and teaches skills to resist those influences. Targeting fifth-graders, the program takes an effective and innovative approach to smoking prevention The goal of the program is to discourage tobacco, use among our nation's youth through education and community involvement. Family physicians participate in their local schools and become involved in teaching tobacco and smoking prevention programs as part of the school's comprehensive health education curriculum In Illinios, more than 260 schools and 70 family physicians are involved in TAR WARS.
The program enlists health care professionals to become teachers for one hour as they present the TAR WARS lesson The lesson focuses on the short-term effects of tobacco use, the reasons people use tobacco and the images that tobacco companies use to market their products. TAR WARS provides an opportunity for health care professionals, school personnel and community members to form coalitions toward the common goal of discouraging youth tobacco use.
TAR WARS has been implemented in all fifty states in addition to, D.C., Guam, and the Uniformed Services including Spain, Germany and Japan through the efforts of the American Academy of Family Physicians. An estimated one million children have been reached including 325,000 children in the 1997-98 academic year alone. The IAFP has designated the TAR WARS campaign as a public health priority for 1999.