Students Share Anti-Tobacco Use Message

Area teens are planning a special event to celebrate National Kick Butts Day, a national anti-tobacco advocacy day, on Wednesday, March 20.

Teens Against Tobacco Use (TATU) students from four area high schools will gather at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday at the Grand Rapids Community College Student Center in downtown Grand Rapids to pass out information and talk to students and staff about tobacco use. Their message will focus on the importance of providing a smoke-free environment for families and how young people can avoid tobacco experimentation and use.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, prevention efforts must focus on both adolescents and young adults because most adult daily smokers started smoking before they turned 18.

The schools participating in the TATU event are Grand Rapids Public Schools’ Central, Creston High and Ottawa Hills high schools and Northview High School. Approximately 40 students are expected to attend.

TATU is part of Spectrum Health’s youth tobacco prevention program. For more information, please contact Libby Stern, social worker and health educator, Spectrum Health Healthier Communities, at 616.486.6503.

Spectrum Health is a not-for-profit health system in West Michigan offering a full continuum of care through the Spectrum Health Hospital Group, which is comprised of nine hospitals including Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital, a state of the art children’s hospital that opened in January 2011, and 140 service sites; the Spectrum Health Medical Group and West Michigan Heart, physician groups totaling more than 700 providers; and Priority Health, a health plan with 600,000 members. Spectrum Health is West Michigan’s largest employer with 19,000 employees. The organization provided $204 million in community benefit during its 2012 fiscal year.