Back to School, Back to Tar Wars

Thousands of Ohio’s children are back in school and ready to learn.  Are you ready to teach?  This is a great time for you to begin making arrangements to present Tar Wars in fourth- and fifth-grade classrooms; and, the program curriculum for presenters and teachers has been updated for the new school year.

The updated program guide includes a new one-page outline for presenters to follow. A section on the dangers of secondhand smoke has been added to the curriculum, as have the latest statistics about the costs of smoking and the amount of money tobacco product manufacturers spend on advertising.  Finally, the updated guide displays posters from the 2008-09 national poster contest and provides guidelines for the 2009-10 contest.  In addition, informational PowerPoint presentations geared toward presenters also have been revised.

Tar Wars, a fully owned and operated program of American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), is a youth tobacco-free education program targeting fourth- and fifth-grade students worldwide. It is one of the building blocks in a comprehensive, tobacco-free education plan. Tar Wars is an effective and interactive classroom activity encouraging tobacco prevention and a proven lesson plan focusing on the short-term, image-based consequences of tobacco use and how to think critically about tobacco advertising.

Family physicians, residents, medical students, educators and other health care professionals present the Tar Wars tobacco-free education program to about 400,000 fourth- and fifth-grade students each year

Helping to prevent tobacco use among children is one of the most important services that you can provide as a volunteer, and it can impact the future health of your community.

The following statistics reflect the toll of tobacco in Ohio:

• 18,000 kids under age 18 become daily smokers each year
• 32 million packs of cigarettes are bought or smoked by kids each year
• 919,000 kids are exposed to secondhand smoke at home
• In Ohio, 21.6 percent (140,200) of high school students smoke
• The percentage of adults who smoke in Ohio is 20.10 percent (1,759,800)
• 18,500 adults in Ohio die each year from their own smoking
• 293,000 kids now under 18 and alive in Ohio who will ultimately die prematurely from smoking
• Annual health care costs in Ohio directly caused by smoking is $4.37 billion
• Portion covered by the state Medicaid program is $1.4 billion
• Tobacco companies spend a staggering $556.7 million to advertise their products in Ohio.

Dr. Greg Parranto, Ohio’s Tar Wars coordinator, is recruiting Tar Wars presenters for the 2009-10 school year.  If you are interested in being a Tar Wars presenter or if you are already a Tar Wars presenter and want to know more about our statewide program, contact Dr. Parranto or call 419.234.5615.

Get involved with Tar Wars today—it is the right thing to do!