Local teens smoke the pins, not tobacco

WASILLA -- More than 15 Valley students, ranging from middle school students to adult learners, took advantage of North Bowl and BreatheFREE Mat-Su's offer of discounted bowling if students signed a pledge to remain smoke free.

"We've had really positive feedback from the kids who came," said John Stinson, the program coordinator of BreatheFREE Mat-Su.

Students were offered a 50-percent discount plus free shoes at North Bowl for participating in the Great American Smoke Out last week; North Bowl owner Bob Stevens said he hopes to offer the discount to nonsmoking students in the future.

"I think anything to encourage kids not to smoke is a good thing," Stevens said.

Students that showed up to bowl also had expressed strong desires not to smoke. Weston Espinoza is a 10th-grader at Wasilla High School; he took a break from bowling to tell the Frontiersman why he chooses not to smoke.

"I'm an athlete," Espinoza said. "Smoking really damages your lungs and is not something that I want to do."

His friend, Ronald Tzuo, also a Wasilla High student, agreed.

"Some of my family used to smoke and I don't like it," Tzuo said. "Why would you want to mess your body up?"

Sam Ives came to the alley to support a smoke-free friend who recently graduated from the adult learning program. He said he was happy to be a positive influence on younger kids who want to remain smoke free.

"You can't smoke and skate at the same time," Ives said.

The youngest of the students who took advantage of the discount was Jackson Stein, an eighth-grader at Teeland Middle School. He summed up why he, and his peers, parents and the human race should remain smoke free:

"Because smoking is bad for you."

Survey shows youth tobacco risk down

MAT-SU -- According to the 2003 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, conducted by the State of Alaska Department of Health and Social Services and the Department of Education and Early Development, smoking among Alaska high school students has been cut in half since 1995.

One thousand, five hundred Alaska high school students were randomly chosen from nearly every school district in the state to make up the survey. The following are highlights from the study:

56 percent of students have tried smoking in 2003, compared to 72 percent in 1995.

19 percent of students are currently smoking in 2003, compared to 37 percent in 1995.

8 percent of students frequently smoked in 2003, compared to 21 percent in 1995.

Alaska Native youth smoking exceeds all other races; 49 percent of Alaska Native females and 40 percent of Alaska Native males have smoked at least once during the month before the survey, compared to 13 percent of white females and 12 percent of white males, and 15 percent of females in other races and 10 percent of males in other races.

Students who report that their parents never talk to them about smoking are almost twice as likely to smoke as students whose parents do talk with them about smoking.

Students who get mostly C's or worse are four times as likely to smoke as those who get mostly A's.

Students who do not participate in after-school activities are almost twice as likely to smoke as students who participate in one or more activities per week.

Student older than 16 years of age who smoke were twice as likely to have used alcohol in the month prior to the survey, and were four times as likely to have used marijuana during that time, compared to those who didn't smoke.

Students older than 16 years of age who smoke are three times as likely to have ever used inhalants, and four times as likely to have ever tried cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine or ecstasy, compared to those who don't smoke.

Students older than 16 years of age who smoke are almost twice as likely to have had sex in the previous three months compared to those who do not smoke.

Students who smoke are twice as likely to have been in a physical fight in the past year, and four times as likely to have been driving while intoxicated during the past 30 days, compared to those who do not smoke.

Tobacco-attributed disease in Alaska accounts for approximately 600 deaths per year, more than five times as many deaths as those caused by motor-vehicle crashes. Of the death toll due to tobacco, 120 lives are lost each year because of secondhand smoke.

According to the 2002 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, approximately three-quarters of smokers started tobacco use during adolescence.