Back to Journalism Awards

Journalism Award Winner: Winter 2002: Second Place

By Amanda Beuhler, Health Editor
The Apple Leaf
Wenatchee High School
Wenatchee, WA

While the nonsmoking rate of the general public has gone down, studies show that smoking among teenagers is rising steadily, especially among girls. A study by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention found that over 40 percent of teenage girls smoke.

The question is why? The answers vary, one reason being that smoking becomes an alternative to eating because of the belief by some that it will result in weight loss. However, the most common reason found was that a teenage girl usually begins to smoke because she wants to "fit in" or feel accepted.

For boys, as Joel D. Killen of Stanford University of Medicine discovered, the beginning of their smoking career begins from friends who smoke. They focus less on the social aspect and more on the stress relief.

For one WHS senior boy, who had been given his first cigarette at age four by his father, smoking was a natural activity. "My dad bought them for me. It was no big deal." After smoking up to four cigarettes a day for three years (eighth to tenth grade), he quit with the understanding that he was doing harm to himself. This senior boy also added, "It's not really that cool anymore."

While his case of experiencing tobacco so early in life is rare, Killen's study of 1,901 boys and girls in northern California showed that in their high school years, the majority of the group reported smoking some time during the study.

Often, a teenager's first encounter with cigarettes is at a party.

This is how one senior girl first stated. "Everyone else was doing it and I wanted to try it. And then I liked it," she recalled. And although she has also since quit, this senior girl admitted to smoking a lot, due to a "slight addiction." She said for her, it gave an outlet to everything else going on in her life. "I think it took my mind off of stuff."

With another senior girl, who still smokes at parties, smoking gives a buzz without losing control. "I don't drink anymore; I just [smoke] instead."

Jenny Capelo, one of the nurses at WHS, reinforces that because the media is specifically targeting females, smoking is an image issue.

However, she thinks that students are clueing in, but not without at least trying smoking. Capelo believes that the trend is now to try it and then to "get out." Still, the studies have shown that many of the younger students, who are supposedly at risk, admitted to being tobacco free.

"With more information, better decisions are made," Capelo said.

By Jeannie Tucker, Managing Editor
The Apple Leaf
Wenatchee High School
Wenatchee, WA

We all know the scene. A mysterious cowboy rides off into the sunset on his faithful horse, holding a smoldering cigarette in his free hand. The Marlboro Man has enticed many Americans to smoke for decades, and is part of a mass-marketing advertising scheme to draw new smokers at an early age.

Dr. David Daniel, a pulmonologist at Wenatchee Velley Clinic, lists advertising as a major draw to first-time smokers. "Teenagers are bombarded with images...and advertising companies claim that they aren't targeting youths," said Daniel. "In reality, the companies know that if they get a customer hooked at an early age...they'll end up making more money.

Another advertising tactic the tobacco companies use is counter-advertisements in order to shake the stigma of being associated with the deaths of millions of people. While claiming to feed the needy in Eastern Europe, the Philip Morris Company also creates a product that carries a warning from the Surgeon General. This form of contradictory advertising draws thousands each day to begin a potentially deadly habit.

Many people start smoking with the idea that only people who have been smoking for years are affected by smoking related illnesses. This couldn't be further from the truth. Physicians begin seeing patients as young as 14 years old, with chronic asthma due to second-hand smoke exposure from their parents' habits.

As for the patients who actually smoke, it's a game of Russian roulette. "It all depends on their genes," said Daniel. "Some people are diagnosed with lung cancer ten years after the beginning of their smoking habit."

The appeals of smoking may seem to outnumber the pitfalls at first, but in the long-run smoking does more harm than good. Although not everyone who smokes dies from a smoking-related illness, most develop debilitating diseases that hinder them for the remainder of their lives.

When asked what he would say to a teenager who is considering smoking, Daniel asked, "Why? Why would you want to start a habit that's very addictive and will kill you?"

According to Daniel, smokers are inhaling a constant source of irritation to their respiratory systems every time they puff. Smokers are more susceptible to pneumonia and chronic bronchitis than nonsmokers, and can expect excess amounts of phlegm and mucous as a result of this habit,

What did happen to the Marlboro Man? It would be awfully difficult to ask him. He died of lung cancer in his late 40s.

By Katie Pittner, Staff Reporter
The Apple Leaf
Wenatchee High School
Wenatchee, WA

The health Occupations classes at WHS, as well as sophomore health classes, are reaching out to the Wenatchee community by helping to localize the national observation of the Great American Smokeout. The Smokeout is one day each year in which businesses and schools across the country attempt to promote awareness about smoking and try to encourage smokers to quit for at least one day.

The Great American Smokeout will take place on Nov. 15, but the students of WHS plan to promote awareness throughout conference week. The Health Occupations classes led by Jenny Capelo and Marty Zontek have broken into groups and arranged projects to provide information relevant to students throughout the community.

One group plans to have a display table at lunch the Thursday prior to conference week, with the hopes that they will be able to let the student body become aware of the Great American Smokeout this year before it occurs. According to Yuriana Mora, one of the student organizers, information will also be posted in the morning announcement during conference week, as well as on posters that will be displayed in the hallways.

Another group plans to create a banner that will be hung in the hallway on Nov. 12. Students will be encouraged to sign the poster as a pledge to try to quit using tobacco products for the week. The display case near the commons will also be filled with before/after mannequins, as well as more statistics about tobacco use.

After being prepped by a seminar on how to teach, students Molly Cassidy and Natalie Hersel will be going to elementary schools this spring to teach kids about the dangers of smoking. Kathy Meuret from the American Cancer Society has provided them with props to help students understand the dangers of this widespread habit.

According to Zontek, the students are taking on this task voluntarily, and the results will not affect their grades dramatically. "This is a leadership component of the Health Occupations," said Zontek. "We're trying to help WHS to become more aware of the dangers of smoking by making the issue seem more local."

As well as the projects mentioned before, students in the Health Occupations class will teach the sophomore health classes and distribute suckers with facts about smoking attached to the wrappers. The students hope that the spread of awareness will go beyond conference week and that the students of WHS will feel encouraged to learn more about the dangers of smoking and using tobacco products.

Copyright © 2002

Back to Journalism Awards