SAD 17’s health coordinator showed some of the negative effects of tobacco.
By Jim Smedley
Staff Writer

OXFORD – Black lungs! Yellow teeth!

“Yuck”

So say the fourth-graders in SAD 17 who were introduced to the byproducts and dangers of smoking in the recently completed Tar Wars education classes.

Jenni-Lee Fitts, SAD 17’s health coordinator, spoke to the majority of fourth grade classes in the district during November and December, pointing out the dangers of smoking.

She was aided by Healthy Oxford Hills health educator Libby Graffam, who taught two classes.

“We talk about the effects of tobacco, why people use tobacco, how much smoking costs per year and how tobacco companies target people with advertising, especially youth,” Fitts said.

She showed students a pig’s lung, dyed to simulate a smoker’s lung who had been smoking for 18 to 20 years. It’s black and it’s not pretty and Fitts said she waits until the end of the program to share it with children.

“Fourth-graders have asked me, ‘Why was a pig smoking?'” Fitts said.

She explained to them that pigs really don’t smoke and the lung was taken from a pig who had died, so it was not hurt in getting the lung.

Fitts said students looked at magazine ads and determined the number of misleading aspects in each. They also got some math practice in calculating that it costs abut $2,000 per year for a person who smokes a pack of cigarettes a day.

“If you had $2,000 extra per year what would do with it?” Fitts said she asked the children. “This year, more than in other years, the kids said they would give it away to charity.”

Fitts also introduced the children to Mr. Gross Mouth, a model of a fake mouth, gums, tongue and teeth.

“The teeth are black where the juice from tobacco has been,” Fitts said.

“There are also lesions on the gums from using tobacco over a period of time. It also has mouth cancer and tongue cancer,” she added.

“This has an impact on kids,” she said. “More than just saying cigarettes are bad.”

About 250 fourth-graders in the district participated in the program.

“I learned how smoking can effect your lungs and how chewing tobacco can effect your mouth,” said David McCaul, a fourth-grader from Paris. “I also learned that smoking can make your teeth yellow.”

Shelby Scribner, a fourth-grader from Paris, said she learned how nicotine effects the brain and that tobacco advertisements don’t always tell the truth.

“I also learned that smoking can give you cancer and make your teeth yellow,” Scribner said.

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