Grades 1, 2, 3
Tobacco Facts This overview covers nicotinethe addictive chemical in tobacco, a description of commonly used tobacco products, initiation into tobacco use and associated factors, health impact of tobacco use, and tobacco advertising.
This information will help with questions your students may ask you while teaching the Tobacco Free Kids Club activities.
Nicotine Nicotine, a naturally occurring chemical in tobacco, is a powerful, multipurpose drug that is used as both a stimulant and a depressant. It is often a childs first experience with using a mood altering addictive substance to dose him or herself for a psychological effect. Nicotine is a highly addictive drug with both short and long term negative health effects.
One of the problems associated with tobacco use is that children and adults who smoke or chew tobacco may be using nicotine to change their feelings. Even if tobacco begins as a means to appear older and more mature, or as a result of peer pressure or parent modeling, it can develop into an emotional coping tool and a physical addiction.
Tobacco products The most commonly used tobacco products are cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco, and snuff.
Initiation
The highest rate of initiation into daily smoking is among children ages 11-14 in grades 6-9.
More than 50% of Pierce County eighth grade students have experimented with tobacco.
Sixty percent of all current smokers began by age 14 and 80% by age 18.
Everyday 3,000 U.S. teens smoke their first cigarette on the way to becoming regular smokers
1
as adults.
Peer influence, parent tobacco use, and advertising appear to be the most potent factors in predicting the onset of smoking.
Youth who do not like school are three times more likely to be current smokers than those who like school a lot.
Problem-prone youth are most likely to smoke.
School dropouts, both male and female, have a 75% smoking rate.
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Washington State Survey of Adolescent Health Behaviors, 1998.
Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department
Mary Bridge Childrens Hospital and Health Center
Grades 1, 2, 3
Health impact
Youth smokers experience immediate health effects, such as: more phlegm production and a smokers cough, decreased physical fitness, shortness of breath, decreased endurance, more colds and bronchitis, increased heart rate, a slower rate of lung development, allergy flare-ups, more colds, flu and pneumonia.
Annually, tobacco kills four times as many people as all the other drugs, car accidents, suicides, homicides, and AIDS combined.
Twenty percent of all Pierce County deaths are attributed to tobacco use.
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The earlier a person starts smoking, the more likely he or she is to develop lung cancer.
Smoking kills nearly 418,000 Americans each year; cocaine kills approximately 1,000 annually.
Chewing tobacco and snuff are not safer alternatives to smoking. They cause cancer of the cheeks, gums, and throat sometimes within a few years of starting.
Nicotine addiction The earlier people start smoking, the harder it is to quit when they are older.
People who start smoking in the teenage years run the risk of becoming lifelong smokers.
Nicotine use develops into a true dependence or addiction in most people who use tobacco products regularly.
Advertising The tobacco industry spends more than $3 billion a year to advertise its products.
Tobacco advertising targets youth with images designed to promote use.
The tobacco companies net more than $1 billion on illegal sales to minors.
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Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department data, 1996. All other facts come from the 1995 U.S. Surgeon Generals Report and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department
Mary Bridge Childrens Hospital and Health Center
Grades 1, 2, 3
The Respiratory System This overview covers the basic function and components of the respiratory system. It also covers the harmful effects of tobacco use on the respiratory system. The new words from the activities are in bold. This information will help with any questions that your students may ask you while teaching Tobacco Free Kids Club activities.
Function of the respiratory system The respiratory system consists of the lungs, trachea, bronchial tubes (bronchus), bronchiole and alveoli. The diaphragm, although not a part of the respiratory system, is the huge powerful
muscle at
the bottom of the chest that controls breathing.
The respiratory system is responsible for carrying oxygen from the air to the bloodstream and expelling the by-product, carbon dioxide. Respiration is the process from which the tiny cells that make up the body get their energy. During this process, sugars from the digestion of food combine with oxygen supplied from the lungs to create energy. The cells need this energy to do their work.
Each cell in the body has a special job to do that keeps us alive. Blood cells carry the oxygen from the lungs to the cells. After respiration has taken place, the blood cells carry away the carbon dioxide (a very poisonous gaseous by-product of respiration) and deposit it in the lungs to be exhaled. The following is a review of respiration: breathing air into the lungs (inhaling) transferring oxygen from the lungs to the blood transporting oxygen via blood cells to the body cells combining oxygen with the sugars from digestion (providing the energy to the cells) transporting carbon dioxide via the blood cells to the lungs to be breathed out (exhaling).
Oxygen path Air enters the body through the nose and mouth. Hairs in the nose help filter the air, trapping dust and particles.
From the nose, air travels through the trachea. The trachea (windpipe) is the hard tube found at the front of the neck. There is a flap of skin at the top of the trachea that snaps shut to prevent food from entering and causing choking. This flap of skin is called the epiglottis and opens only when we breathe.
The trachea splits off into two branches called the bronchial tubes (or bronchi). There is one bronchial tube going into each lung. The walls of the bronchial tubes are lined with mucus which collect impurities like dust, car and factory pollutants, and germs.
Bronchial tubes also contain millions of tiny hairs called cilia which act like tiny brooms to
sweep out
the impurities caught in the mucus. Each cilium sweeps back and forth about ten times each second. Bronchial tubes split into smaller and smaller tubes called the bronchiole (BRON-kee-ol). At the end of the bronchiole are small balloon like air sacs called alveoli (al-VEE-o-lye). When we inhale, the alveoli are filled with air. About 600 million alveoli line the lungs, making the inside of the lungs like sponges.
Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department
Mary Bridge Childrens Hospital and Health Center
Grades 1, 2, 3
Oxygen in the air passes from the thin walls of the alveoli to the blood vessels surrounding the alveoli. Oxygen is picked up by the blood cells and delivered to all of the cells in the body so it can be used to create energy (respiration). The energy created in the cells fuels all body functions. The blood cells then pick up the carbon dioxide from the process of respiration and deposit it in the alveoli to be exhaled.
Exercise When we exercise, our cells are working harder and need more oxygen. The cells also produce more carbon dioxide during exercise. We breathe faster when we exercise because the cells in our muscles need oxygen very quickly. Our heart and lungs work together to make sure every cell in our body gets enough oxygen for what we want to do.
Effect of smoking Smoking is harmful to the body in many ways. It is extremely harmful to the lungs, and is the cause of 87% of all lung cancer deaths.
Chemicals in tobacco smoke Tobacco smoke contains more than 4,000 chemicals, many of which are very harmful to our bodies. Some of the chemicals mix together and form a sticky tar which collects in the lungs. Five of the most harmful of these chemicals are tar, nicotine, carbon monoxide, arsenic, and naphthalene. (Some or all of these will be addressed in the activities for different grade levels.)
Tar: A very harmful poison found in cigarette smoke. It sticks to the cilia in the bronchial tubes. The cilia are responsible for sweeping out germs and environmental pollutants. The tar paralyzes the cilia, preventing them from cleaning the lungs of general impurities from the air, as well as chemicals from cigarettes. When the cilia are paralyzed, the poisons from tobacco smoke and impurities in the air are able to get into the alveoli causing them to collapse or become diseased. Cilia revitalize when a smoker quits.
Nicotine: An addictive chemical naturally occurring in the leaf of the tobacco plant. Nicotine affects the brain and causes the smoker to want to use more tobacco. Nicotine acts as both a stimulant and a depressant. It is the only drug in which the user unconsciously administers the correct amount for the desired effect. Because of the addictive quality of nicotine, it is very hard for smokers to quit. Nicotine is also a deadly poison used in many bug sprays. It is so potent that one drop of concentrated liquid can kill an average adult.
Arsenic: A potent rat poison. Arsenic, along with many of the 4,000 chemicals found in cigarettes, is added to tobacco to help with burning and other attributes that make smoking more pleasant to the smoker.
Carbon Monoxide: A poisonous gas which is produced from the burning of tobacco. Carbon monoxide is delivered to the lungs when a smoker inhales the hot smoke from the burning cigarette.
Naphthalene: A poison used in moth balls to kill moths. It is added in the manufacturing of cigarettes to enhance burning and other qualities related to the satisfaction of the smoker.
Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department
Mary Bridge Childrens Hospital and Health Center
The Circulatory System
Grades 1, 2, 3
This overview covers the basic function of the circulatory system and organs which make up this remarkable system. It also covers the harmful effects of tobacco on the circulatory system. The new words from your activities are in Bold. This information will help you with any questions the students may ask you while teaching the Tobacco Free Kids Club Activities.
Function of the circulatory system The circulatory system is a transport system. It consists of the heart and a network of blood vessels (the veins, arteries, and capillaries) that take the blood to all parts of the body.
The heart The center of the system is the heart, a hollow powerful muscular organ about the size of a persons fist. The heart is the most powerful muscle in the body.
Unlike leg and arm muscles, which you can
control at will, your heart muscle contracts whether you want it to or not. For this reason it is called an involuntary muscle.
The right side of the heart receives blood from the veins. This blood is void of oxygen and is carrying the carbon dioxide from the process of respiration (as described in the information on the respiratory system). The left side of the heart receives oxygenated blood from the lungs and sends it to the body through the arteries.
Each half of the heart is divided into two chambers, an atrium and a ventricle. The top chambers are called atriums. The atriums receive the blood and act as tiny reservoirs. When the heart relaxes, the blood is pulled into the lower chambers called the ventricles. Valves, like one-way doors, keep the blood from backing up from the ventricles into the atriums.
When the heart contracts (beats), the blood is pushed into the ventricles and out to the body. The right ventricle sends blood to the lungs to deposit carbon dioxide and pick up fresh oxygen. The left ventricle sends the oxygenated blood out to the body through the arteries. Each ventricle has a valve which keeps the blood from backing up from the arteries into the ventricles.
The heartbeat is the sound heard through a stethoscope when the valves close. The hearts job is to pump blood around the body so that the blood can transport vital materials to and from different organs. Every cell in the body, whether in a muscle, an organ, or a nerve needs a constant supply of oxygen and other materials.
Arteries The arteries are the vessels that take blood away from the heart and the tissues. The walls of an artery contain muscular layers which contract to move blood along every time the heart beats.
Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department
Mary Bridge Childrens Hospital and Health Center
Grades 1, 2, 3 Transporting blood The other major blood vessels, the veins, transport blood from the tissues toward the heart. Veins have thinner walls than arteries. Veins have valves that prevent blood from flowing backwards.
Capillaries, another very important blood vessel, are very tiny. They connect the ends of the arteries with the ends of the veins so blood can move in between. This is where the exchange of food, oxygen and waste products take place between the cells and the blood.
The complete trip takes less than one minute. If blood vessels were stretched from end to end, they would measure 50,000 or more miles.
Effects of smoking Smoking affects the heart in a number of different ways: With every puff on a cigarette, the nicotine that is inhaled tends to make the heart beat faster. As a result, the heart is forced to work harder and needs more oxygen.
Carbon monoxide gas in cigarette smoke cuts down on the amount of oxygen available to the heart and blood stream. Smoking raises the blood pressure by contributing to the buildup of plaque and fatty deposits in the arteries. The buildup can clog arteries and cut off blood flow to the heart, resulting in a heart attack or a stroke.
People who smoke a pack of cigarettes a day have more than twice the risk of heart attack than people who have never smoked, according to the American Heart Association. Also, the earlier a person starts smoking, the greater the risk of a heart attack.
Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department
Mary Bridge Childrens Hospital and Health Center
