Education Law

Yet another reason to prevent tobacco use among youth

BoardBuzz knew tobacco was bad for us, but now the Los Angeles Times reports that the stuff is even worse than we thought. It turns out that U.S. cigarette brands are among the most toxic in the world, according to a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

This is because American cigarettes are typically made from “American blend” tobacco, a specific blend that, because of growing and curing practices, contains higher levels of cancer-causing tobacco-specific nitrosamines. The most popular Canadian, Australian, and British brands, in contrast, are made from “bright” tobacco, which is lighter in color and cured differently.

The bottom line is that any way you slice it, tobacco is bad news.  And yet, 1,500 kids in the U.S. try cigarettes each day and one third of those will become addicted.  One more reason to make sure your district has a comprehensive tobacco-free schools policy, allowing no tobacco use of any kind by anyone at anytime, anywhere on school property. 

NSBA is currently receiving funding from the CDC to develop strategies to strengthen state-level partnerships that involve state school boards associations and other key stakeholders to support tobacco prevention among youth through comprehensive tobacco-free school policies.  Through these partnerships, the National Consortium on Tobacco Use Prevention was born and some of its accomplishments include establishing pilot programs in five states to promote comprehensive tobacco free-schools policies.

Full post as published by BoardBuzz: NSBA's Daily Weblog on June 09, 2010 (boomark / email).