Introduction

Every day in the United States there are 3,000 teenagers who start smoking.  These are people just like you with hopes and dreams to be a happy, healthy, successful person.  Even with the negative messages the media and schools are sending your way, teens are still making the wrong choices about smoking, chewing, and dipping tobacco.  In a recent study more than one third of high school students reported using some form of tobacco in the past month.  Because of these facts, the U.S. Surgeon General states that "If current smoking rates continue in the United States, 5 million children now living in the country would die of smoking related diseases."
 
 

Each student is going to compose a letter to the City Council urging Milford to become  more of a smoke free society.  There are many things that could be accomplished to meet your criteria.  For example, your letter could focus on abolishing vending machines that sell tobacco in restaurants and bars.  There are many other avenues you could explore in your letter to City Hall.

 In order to write an organized well designed letter you will need to have some knowledge of the dangers of tobacco.  Before you begin your letter make sure you can answer the following questions.

*  Why is cigarette smoking so addictive?
*  Why do so many  teenagers begin to smoke? 
*  Is snuff just as dangerous as cigarettes?
*  How does tobacco affect the circulatory and respiratory system? 
*  What is passive smoke?  And why is it so dangerous?
*  What are the rights of the non-smoker.
 

Some of the resources you may use to find answers to these questions is your health textbook as well as these various websites.
 
 
 

http://www.cquest.com/LeskoBrothers.html

http://www.smokingstinks-aaco.org

http://www.SmokefreeAir.org

http://health.yahoo.com/health/tobacco

 

    You need to document on a separate piece of paper at least 4 resources that were used to prepare the information for your letter to City Council.

Your  performance is going to be graded on the rubric that is provided below.  To add up your total grade you will add the rubric score for each of the 5 sections with the stated objectives or performance in the left column.

It is very important to focus your letter on anti smoking and things that could be done with this in mind, instead of focusing on the facts about the dangers of smoking.  You will need to be competent and aware of the dangers but structure the letter in a way that promotes the change you want to take place.  New  York City and California have already introduced anti smoking bills that  ban smoking in public places. Orange, CT  has also been working on making the town smoke free.  If they could develop this than it certainly could be done in Milford as well.
 

Graphics from: 
Tobacco' s Dirty Secrets  http://www.no-smoke.org/shenanigans.html

Second Hand Smoke and Community Laws 
www.toolworks.com/bilofsky/smoking.htm

The Marshall Cavendish Encyclopedia of Health  p.683

www.smokingstinks.aaco.org/facts.htm