In spite of everything that parents and schools are doing to get the message about not smoking out to kids, according to the recent county-wide results of the California Healthy Kids Survey, 8 percent of 9th graders and 14 percent of 11th graders report that they have smoked a cigarette in the last 30 days.

Is there anything more a parent can do to prevent tobacco use beyond the basics of communicating family values, being a role model and making sure that our children know what the consequence at home would be if they were ever found to be smoking or chewing tobacco?  Here are two more ideas:

1. Help your child practice saying no to offers of tobacco.  Offer to be used as an excuse as in “if my parents smell smoke on me, I’ll lose my cell phone for two weeks and I’ll have to write a two page report on 50 reasons not to smoke.”
2. Use teachable moments (such as when you see tobacco use on TV or a movie or when you have to walk through a cloud of foul smelling smoke to get in a store) to pass along a few facts.  Ask your child, “did you know…”

• Smoking damages the fibers (collagen and elastin) that give your skin strength and elasticity.  Ask them what they think the result will be.  Sagging skin and wrinkles is the answer.
• The Surgeon General has said recently that “smoking harms nearly every organ of the body.”  Choose a body part or organ system that you think would be most interesting to your individual child (i.e. healthy lungs for an athlete) and discuss how their life would change if that area of their body was damaged by smoking.
• One hour in a smoke filled room fills your body with as much poison as if you had smoked a cigarette yourself.  Ask if there are ever times when someone is smoking around your child.
• Nicotine, the addictive drug in tobacco, is as addictive as heroin and cocaine and is as difficult to quit.  A teen can get hooked during their first pack of cigarettes.
• Often when you are in a store that sells tobacco, ask your child to figure out the cost of smoking or chewing (include the taxes that are not in the advertisements).  Ask which would be more fun: spending that much on their favorite stuff or buying dried leaves and paper, lighting it on fire and pulling the smoke down into their lungs?
• Spit tobacco and cigars are not safe alternatives to cigarettes; low-tar and additive-free cigarettes are not safer either.

For a complete website that will give you all the information and ideas you need about tobacco go to www.cdc.gov/tobacco