This November, the club SADD, Students Against Destructive Decisions, put up posters and decorated the entire school with messages against smoking and vaping for the Great American Smokeout. Every November, the American Cancer Society spreads awareness for smoking and even vaping, with the Great American Smokeout, which was created to help people quit smoking and to know what smoking really does to them. The fourth Thursday of November, is when the Great American Smokeout officially starts, and it was created about forty years ago. The main idea is to encourage people to make and stick to their plans to quit smoking, so that they can live happy and smoke free for the rest of their lives. The Great American Smokeout started in Massachusetts when a man asked people to give up smoking for one day, and then to donate all of the money, that they would have spent on cigarettes that day, to a high school fundraiser. This was known as D-Day (Don’t Smoke Day). People eventually caught on and began to do the same thing all over the United States because they themselves knew, how hard it was to quit tobacco and smoking. Moreover, smoking can cause so many health problems, like emphysema, COPD, and a bunch of different types of cancer i.e. lung and throat. In fact more that 16 million people in the United States live with a disease because of their smoking.
The students in S.A.D.D. also had posters about the new trend that has a lot of teenager’s attention, vaping. Even though it technically isn’t smoking, it is still really harmful for your lungs and there is still nicotine and a lot of other chemicals which causes side effects that doctors are still questioning. In fact, as more and more studies are going on about vaping, the results are showing that the chemicals in vaping can lower your lung capacity and having to go through life with a really low lung capacity is already hard enough for the older generation, let alone teens who still should have their whole lives ahead of them. Thanks to the Great American Smokeout there are now self help groups, telephone quitlines, books, counselors, and a fresh start program, so that people do not have to go through quitting alone. Thank you again to the members of SADD for helping to make our school and community a better place!