By Solomon Crenshaw Jr.
For The Birmingham Times
Sara Catherine Cook knows what cigarettes can do. The Mountain Brook resident and sophomore at The Altamont School, lost an uncle who had been a heavy smoker.
“It’s important to prevent this from happening to other families and other people,” she said.
That’s why she was among about three dozen students who gathered at Kelly Ingram Park earlier this month to encourage young people to not smoke or quit if they have begun.
Cook’s uncle, David Cook of Vestavia Hills, was diagnosed last August with COPD – Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. As his condition deteriorated, he wound up with two collapsed lungs.
He passed away in September.
“He always had a really bad coughing issue,” Cook said of her uncle. “It all came together, multiplied into a bigger issue.”
At the event, students from Jefferson Christian Academy and Altamont School made signs to show what they can do with their lives if not cut short by the smoking. The Alabama Department of Public Health, Children’s of Alabama, the National African American Tobacco Prevention Network and the Jefferson County Department of Health helped sponsor the event.
Dr. Susan Chu Walley, associate professor in the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine and a pediatric hospitalist at Children’s of Alabama, said, “We want to keep all of our students and all of our youth in Alabama and in the United States from starting any kind of tobacco use. We want youth and adults who currently use tobacco to stop.”
Tobacco use has decreased the past few decades among adults and youths, but the rate of youth tobacco use has been steady the past five years, due largely to electronic cigarettes, or “vaping” devices.
“Instead of smoking, they are picking up these electronic cigarettes, and vaping devices, thinking that they’re safe,” she said. “They contain tobacco and nicotine, which we know are harmful to youth in particular. We know that young adults and teenagers are more likely to become addicted to nicotine than an adult.”
Walley added that studies have shown that teenagers who use electronic cigarettes or vaping devices are more likely to move onto combustible tobacco products. She added that many have been led to believe that electronic cigarettes and vaping devices are safer than cigarettes.
“We want to make sure people know that tobacco products, including electronic cigarettes and vaping devices, are not safe products,” she said.
Following the park ceremony, festivities moved to the basement of 16th Street Baptist Church. Deacon Gregory Townsend challenged the teens to take a stand in this effort just as teens did decades ago in the Civil Rights Movement.
“Just because you’re young doesn’t mean you don’t have power,” Townsend said. “That’s why you’re here.”
