Kara Holmes of the Seaway Prevention Council in Ogdensburg has compiled comments on tobacco use by Hammond Central School students who are involved in St. Lawrence, Jefferson and Lewis counties’ Reality Check anti-tobacco program.

“Reality Check is a dedicated group of youth leaders who work to expose the manipulative marketing tactics used by the tobacco industry to target teens,” Holmes said. “Reality Check educates our community, peers and policy makers with the goal of mobilizing change that will de-normalize tobacco use in our society.”

She says students, who Reality Check only identified by first names, offered their ideas. There are no citations for the statistics here:

• Alexus, 14:

“My name is Alexus and I am 14 and I have a grandfather who smokes every day. I have tried many times to make him stop but he refuses. I am afraid of getting secondhand smoke. There are more than 480,000 deaths per year in the U.S. alone caused by cigarette use and second hand smoke. I do not want my grandpa to be one of them.”

• Layla, 15:

“Hi, my name is Layla. I am 15 years old. Both of my parents smoke. I have tried for 5 years to get them to quit smoking. They tried one time and that did not work out. They tried smoking outside and that didn’t work either. I am afraid that they are going to get cancer. More than 16 million Americans suffer from a disease caused by smoking. I do not want that to happen to my parents.”

• Jessica, 15:

“My name is Jessica; I am 15 years old. I wanted to ask you to not advertise tobacco. My father use to smoke at least 3 packs of cigarettes a day and he suffers from diabetes. He has had to go to the hospital every day for 40 weeks. Approximately 42,000 people in the U.S. die from cigarettes. You don’t want to be next.”

• Dawson, 16:

“Hi my name is Dawson and I’m 16 years old. I want to help people stop smoking and using other tobacco products. My Aunt passed away from smoking and that’s why we need to stop the use of tobacco products. It causes death to our loves ones and I think everyone would like a day where their loved one would stop tobacco use and have a happy life with you.”