Posted on: Wednesday, March 2, 2005
State hails drop in tobacco use
By Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writer
Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona took advantage of a second annual Kick Butts Day rally at the Hawai'i Capitol's rotunda yesterday to announce that tobacco smoking rates in the state have plummeted among middle and high school students, and, to a lesser extent, adults.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser During that same time, the high school smoking rate fell from 24.5 percent in 2000 to 14.9 percent in 2003 — a decrease of nearly 40 percent.
"Hawai'i kids get the message," Aiona said to a round of applause at an 11 a.m. news conference.
Moments before he spoke, hundreds of students from around the state, wearing gray and black Kick Butts Day T-shirts, had flooded the rotunda waving placards with anti-smoking slogans.
Kick Butts Day is a celebration of youth activism sponsored by the national Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. Yesterday's Capitol event was hosted by the Coalition for a Tobacco Free Hawai'i, which comprises about 1,000 advocates and 140 statewide agencies and businesses.
Representatives of more than two dozen organizations in the coalition set up booths and tables around the Capitol's fourth-floor balcony to explain their programs.
The focus of the day's activities was to urge legislators to continue funding such prevention and cessation initiatives with tobacco settlement funds, and to remind lawmakers that those programs, along with a tobacco tax increase and tougher smoking laws, will mean more good news in the future.
One of those success stories is Fernanda Jarra, a Kuhio Park Terrace resident, who said she hasn't had a cigarette for nine months, thanks to the KKV program.
"I have been smoking since the sixth grade," said Jarra. "I'm 26 now and I have four children. It was really hard to quit when there were a lot of people around you who smoke."
She said she was able to make it because of the KKV program and exceptional support from the center's staff. Her goal now, she said, is to have a smoke-free family. To that end, she said, her husband has refrained from smoking for a month.
Before announcing the good news, Aiona rattled off what he referred to as the "gloomy statistics."
"The facts will say that we lose about 1,100 people a year (to smoking) here in Hawai'i," said Aiona, who lost his own smoking father to lung cancer. "We spend over $500 million a year as a result of tobacco smoking and tobacco addiction."
But he quickly moved to what he called the dramatic numbers, which included a 12.7 percent drop in the rate of adult Hawai'i smokers between 2000 and 2003.
Aiona called that decrease significant because, he said, Hawai'i's laid-back lifestyle lends itself to smoking. He urged the coalition, which has the support of the Lingle administration, to continue its efforts.
"We must remain vigilant," concluded Stacy Evensen, coalition chairwoman. "The battle is not over. Those statistics are excellent. But we're not done yet. Until we see zeros on that board, we must keep the fight going."
Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8038.
Based on recent reports, including a state Department of Health Behavioral Risk Factor Survey, Aiona said the smoking rate among Hawai'i middle-schoolers plunged nearly 60 percent, from 13 percent in 2000 to 5.3 percent in 2003.
Students from 'Ilima Intermediate School were among youngsters from around the state who gathered at the Hawai'i Capitol yesterday in observance of Kick Butts Day, an annual event intended to deter the use of cigarettes and other tobacco products.
For instance, the Kokua Kalihi Valley Health Center which offers assistance for high-risk low-income Asian and Pacific Islander women, said one-third of the smokers who have gone through its smoking-cessation education program have kicked the habit — an exceptionally high success rate compared to similar programs, according to coalition director Deborah Zysman.
