First Graders Get No Smoking Message
Posted on Monday, February 21st, 2005
Sixty-four first graders at Marietta Elementary drew posters to express their thoughts about the liabilities associated with smoking, following a recent presentation by respiratory therapists Sue Cavitt and Carolyn Garner of Mercy Health/Love County Hospital and Clinic.
The therapists performed table-top experiments to illustrate what prolonged smoking can do to lungs and the capacity to breathe. The kids’ posters showed they picked up on the anti-smoking themes.
“Smokng can make you have surgery and make you die,” one poster read. “Please don’t smoke. Say No,” another said. “People will get yellow if they smoke,” one child wrote.
For their good listening and drawing, the children will be treated to a class pizza party, Cavitt said.
Heart and lung conditions and cancer stemming from smoking comprise leading causes of death in Oklahoma. “Second-hand smoke affects children. We see more ear and respiratory infections in these kids,” Garner said.
The therapists offer a smoking cessation program for adults wanting to quit.