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| Smoke-free parks: a 12-year old made it happen |
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Smoke-free parks: a 12-year old made it happen. by Carlene E. Henriques , Donna R. Newton , Helen Hopp Marshak
INTRODUCTION Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS), also known as "secondhand smoke" (SHS), is a major source of indoor air pollution. "Disease risks due to inhalation of tobacco smoke are not limited to smokers, but extend to non-smokers who inhale environmental tobacco smoke at home, at work or in public places." (1) Negative health effects from exposure to secondhand smoke include asthma, wheezing, ear infections, chronic coughs, and upper respiratory infections. (2) This was the basis the "California Smoke-free Workplace Law" that became effective in California in 1995, requiring worksites to be free from indoor tobacco smoke. Bars, clubs, gaming facilities and taverns became smoke-free in 1998 to protect workers from the effects of secondhand smoke. What is relatively unknown is the extent of the effect that outdoor secondhand smoke has on children and adults. Exposure to outdoor secondhand smoke can negatively impact asthma and allergies. (3) We know that it is important for children and youth to have role-models who demonstrate positive health behaviors to influence good decision-making. Unfortunately, television and films depict smoking as an acceptable social norm performed by the majority of adults. When asked, a group of youth from Southern California stated their beliefs that as many as 50-75% of all adults smoke; in reality, less than 20% of adults in California smoke. (4) Media has altered young people's perceptions of smoking and the use of alcohol based on what they see on television each day or in movie theaters. A 1998 Journal of Community Health article by Everett et al. entitled "Tobacco and Alcohol Use in Top-Grossing American Films" concluded that the repeated behaviors of smoking, drinking and drug use have a negative role-modeling impact on children and adolescents. The authors stated that the "frequency of substance use in films, without anti-substance messages, promotes the belief that tobacco and alcohol use is common, acceptable, bears little risk, and is expected, if not embraced." (5) In support of positive role-modeling behavior, a 1996 study 73% of school teachers agreed that being a good role model was important especially if one were trying to encourage students to quit smoking, and 62% agreed that school staff should serve as good role models for their youth by not smoking. (6) Policies requiring smoke-free grounds at park and recreation facilities can provide good non-smoking role-modeling by adult smokers and also provides smoke-free environments for children and youth. Both are important since young people frequent parks most often. While encouraging smokers and employers to create smoke-free homes and worksites contributes to a reduction in this behavior, smoke-free outdoor areas could contribute to positive role-modeling behaviors for children and also create environments supportive of smokers who would like to or are attempting to quit smoking. (7) CASE DESCRIPTION When a young man, who we will call JVC, was only 8 years old, his beloved grandfather, a smoker, died of lung cancer. That experience was crushing for this little boy. Even at 8 years of age, JVC knew that his grandfather's real cause of death should say the "tobacco industry" and not just lung cancer. After his grandfather's death in October 1996, JVC found that he really hated to see people smoking--especially when they smoked around children. JVC found that adult smokers did not seem to care about what type of role-modeling they were demonstrating when they smoked out in the parks where he played soccer and baseball. So in March of 2000, when JVC heard about mini-grant funding available from the Tri-County SOUTH Regional Tobacco-Free Project, he thought he would do something about all the smoking and tobacco use in the City of Grand Terrace, California, parks where he lived. JVC discovered that the Tri-County SOUTH Regional Tobacco-Free Project is funded through Proposition 99--a tax that California taxpayers overwhelming supported with their votes in November of 1988 and that its mission is to advocate for tobacco-free communities in the counties of Imperial, Riverside and San Bernardino in Southern California. First, JVC and his parents attended a mini-grant workshop, developed and submitted a proposal for funding and were notified by Tri-County SOUTH in April 2000 of their $1,100 award. He recruited friends from school and sports to help him with his project he named, "The Terrace is GRAND with Smoke-Free Parks." On May 7, 2000, staff from Tri-County SOUTH conducted a basic training in tobacco prevention called "Tobacco 101" and JVC's project went into full swing. The youth and adults met on a bi-weekly basis to plan and strategize how they would make their parks tobacco-free zones. Grand Terrace is a small suburban community located in San Bernardino County. The population of Grand Terrace is 13,550. The city has over 3,000 children (K-12), four community parks, and its city council is composed of 5 members including the mayor. On June 10, 2000, the youth and adults participated in Grand Terrace Days. They had a booth where they gave out educational information, collected petition signatures supporting smoke-free parks for Grand Terrace and gathered smoke-free park surveys. JVC was able to meet with Mayor Byron R. Matteson of Grand Terrace, explain their project and ask for his support for tobacco and smoke-free parks. That same day, these youths from "The Terrace is GRAND with Smoke-Free Parks" collected over ten bags of trash from the park--four bags of which contained tobacco-related trash including cigarette butts, empty packs, and used match books. JVC's sister received spokesperson training prior to their presentation to city council scheduled for June 22, 2000. In preparation for the city council meeting, the youths taped all the petition pages end-to-end for display at the meeting. They also had designed t-shirts for everyone to wear so they could easily be identified (Photograph 1), and had their bags of trash ready to show to the council members. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] On June 22, 2000, nine very nervous young people and six worried parents attended the city council meeting. On behalf of the group, JVC's sister requested an ordinance that would make all the parks in Grand Terrace smoke and tobacco-free zones. She also described the results of the smoke-free park surveys that demonstrated overwhelming support for tobacco-free parks. Donna R. Newton, Associate Project Director at Tri-County SOUTH, answered questions posed by the city council regarding signage and the self-enforcing nature of a policy when appropriate and sufficient signage is present. Then the youths brought forward the tobacco trash they collected, unrolled the petitions which stretched across the width of the council chambers, and stood together with their matching t-shirts to demonstrate their collective support for a smoke-free park ordinance. After much discussion council members decided that this issue might be best addressed through a resolution, which would include developing and placing appropriate signage in three of the four parks rather than an ordinance. The council decided to exempt one senior park where no play equipment and sports facilities are located. The three tobacco-free parks included Pico, Rawlins, and T.J. Austin parks. The youths savored their victory and their faces beamed as the council members adopted the resolution. The council agreed to work with JVC to develop a "tobacco-free zone" sign (Photograph 2). With his mini-grant funding he provided the city with the financial resources to pay for the signs. It was quite a surprise and an honor when on August 24, 2000, the city council and city manager presented JVC with his own sign. This presentation recognized JVC's efforts in protecting youth from secondhand smoke outdoors and unsightly tobacco trash that can be found in many parks. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] On October 7, 2000, JVC's tobacco-free zone signs went up in all three designated parks in Grand Terrace--showing without a doubt that young people really can make things happen! OUTCOMES The petitions and surveys collected by the youth demonstrated support for smoke-free parks from residents. Of the 100 people surveyed, 93% said they would support a smoke-free policy at parks in Grand Terrace, with 10% saying they "might" support such a policy. Although only five smokers responded to the survey, all of them said that they would support a smoke-free policy at Grand Terrace parks. When asked what they thought were the benefits of a smoke-free park policy, 46% of the 100 respondents said it would decrease fire hazards, 55% said it would take less work to keep to the park clean, 55% said it would improve the beauty of the park, and 80% said it would make the park safer for kids. Clearly the residents of Grand Terrace supported the idea of making their parks smoke-free, especially for the benefits such a policy would have for the youth of their city. Through the efforts of just a handful of young people, great things happened in Grand Terrace, California. Council members passed a resolution requiring appropriate signage to be posted in all three parks where youth participate in sports activities or where there is play equipment. While the resolution was not opposed by any members of the city council (4-0 in favor of the ban on tobacco use in parks), there had been some opposition from law enforcement when the ordinance was originally discussed. All of the opposition dissipated when a resolution was proposed instead of an ordinance. DISCUSSION All too often adults will say how much they worry about the younger generation--whether they are capable of "running the county" once the current generation has passed on. But the truth is that with families like JVC's and others who made the commitment to support their child's involvement in this project, our world can be in great hands. In terms of the effectiveness of a resolution versus an ordinance, cases can be made for both side of the issue. In this case, a resolution was an effective first step. Ordinances require enforcement from either the police or a code enforcement officer, whereas resolutions do not. In this case, the community was small enough and the support generated significant enough to warrant a resolution. This resolution is effective because it required the placement of signage indicating that the parks were tobacco-free zones. It should be noted that many smoking policies are actually self-enforcing when sufficient signage is posted and the signage is easily identifiable. For example, Kaiser Permanente in California adopted a smoke-free campus policy effective January 1, 2002. Their security personnel, however, do not spend hours patrolling their campuses searching out "smoking" violators. Instead they have placed literally hundreds of "No Smoking on Campus. Please extinguish all smoking material in your car." signs throughout their grounds and parking lots. Appropriate signage allows Kaiser visitors to point out the signs to those who may be smoking, in most cases causing them to extinguish their cigarette or tobacco product. JVC, his sister, his mom, his dad and the other eleven youth and nine adults made this resolution a reality. Because of them, hundreds of children and youth are now protected from tobacco trash left on their fields and in their play areas, and they have greatly reduced the number of adults who role-model a behavior JVC knows has deadly consequences. REFERENCES (1) National Cancer Institute. Health Effects of Exposure to Environmental Tobacco Smoke: The Report of the California Environmental Protection Agency. Smoking and Tobacco Control Monograph no. 10. Bethesda, MD. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, NIH Pub. No. 99-4645, 1999, pp ES-1. (2) Forastiere F, Corbo GM, Michelozzi P, et al. Effects of environmental and passive smoking on the respiratory health of children. Int J Epidem 1992; 2:66-73. (3) National Cancer Institute. Health Effects of Exposure to Environmental Tobacco Smoke: The Report of the California Environmental Protection Agency. Smoking and Tobacco Control Monograph no. 10. Bethesda, MD. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, NIH Pub. No. 99-4645, 1999, pp 185-264. (4) Gilpin EA, Emery LS, Farkas AJ, Distefan JM, White MM, Pierce JP. The California Tobacco Control Program: A Decade of Progress, Results from the California Tobacco Surveys, 1990-1999. La Jolla, CA: University of California, San Diego, 2001, pp 2-6. (5) Everett SA, Schnuth RL, Tribble JL. Tobacco and alcohol use in top-grossing american films. J Community Health 1998; 23:317-24. (6) Galaif ER, Sussman S, Bundek N. The relations of school staff smokers' attitudes about modeling smoking behavior in students and their receptivity to no-smoking policy. J Drug Educ 1996; 26: 313-322. (7) Giles CB, Clarkson JP, Donovan RJ, Frizzell SK, Carroll AM, Pikora T, Jalleh G. Creating smoke-free environments in recreational settings. Health Educ Behav 2001; 28:341-351. Carlene E. Henriques was the Regional Project Director and Donna R. Newton was the Associate Project Director at Tri-County SOUTH Regional Tobacco-Free Project, 11860 Magnolia Avenue, STE. L, Riverside, CA, USA; and Helen Hopp Marshak is an Associate Professor of Health Promotion and Education at Loma Linda University, School of Public Health in Loma Linda, California, 92354 USA. Requests for reprints should be addressed to Carlene E. Henriques, CHES, In The Zone, 1465 Spruce Street, Suite G, Riverside, CA 92507; e-mail: c_henriques@sbcglobal.net. This article is made possible by funding received from The Tobacco Tax Health Protection Act of 1988--Proposition 99, Under Grant No. 99-85273 with the California Department of Health Services, Tobacco Control Section. |
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