Cigarettes in a tub at the Suicide Awareness Walk at the University of Texas at Tyler in Tyler, Texas, on Wednesday, March 28, 2018. (Chelsea Purgahn/Tyler Morning Telegraph)

Students from all over East Texas are kicking butts, and cleaning up their community.

The Northeast Texas Public Health District is working with students to clean up discarded cigarette butts in the community.

The organization is hosting several cigarette cleanup days throughout April.

Students will encourage peers to stay tobacco free, reject tobacco marketing and urge elected officials to pass tobacco related legislation and ordinances.

Advocates are pushing for tobacco tax increases, comprehensive smoke-free laws, raising the tobacco sale age to 21, well-funded tobacco prevention programs and banning the sale of flavored tobacco products.

Local radiologist Dr. Bruce Carter is leading a charge to have the city of Tyler pass an ordinance to bar businesses from selling tobacco products to anyone under 21 years of age.

“What we’ve been working on is building a coalition, Tyler Tobacco 21 to raise, the legal sale age of tobacco products to 21,” Carter said.

More than 300 cities around the country, including San Antonio, have raised the tobacco purchasing age to 21.

“I’m a radiologist, part of my job is to diagnose lung cancer through CAT scans and performing lung biopsies,” Carter said. “In the course of my practice i’ve seen a lot of really good people suffer and die from smoking-related diseases because they may have become addicted as a teenager.”

Carter said the goal of the petition is to limit access to tobacco for high school-aged students. By raising the purchasing age to 21, he said it will be more difficult for students to buy tobacco for their younger classmates.

Carter has partnered with Dr. Paul McGaha at UT Health East Texas.

McGaha said East Texas has a significantly higher rate of teen and pregnant smokers than the state. The rate of smokers age 18-29 sits at 27 percent in East Texas, compared to the 22 percent state average.

“Most people start smoking between the ages of 18-20,” McGaha said. “Adolescent brains are particularly vulnerable to the effects of nicotine in cigarettes because they are going through critical periods of growth and development. Three out of four teen smokers end up smoking into adulthood.” 

For more information about the petition, visit facebook.com/TylerTobacco21.

 

Tobacco use is still the No. 1 cause of preventable death in the U.S., killing over 480,000 people and costing about $170 billion in health care expenses each year.

In Texas, tobacco use claims 28,000 lives and costs $8.85 billion in health care bills each year.

Tobacco companies spend $8.9 billion a year – $1 million every hour – to market tobacco products in the U.S., often in ways that appeal to kids.

Electronic cigarettes have become the most popular tobacco product used by kids – nationwide, 11.3 percent of high school students use e-cigarettes compared to 8 percent who smoke cigarettes. The latest trend with teens is JUUL, an e-cigarette that looks like a computer flash drive and comes in flavors like mango and fruit medley.

Currently, 10.6 percent of Texas’s high school students smoke.

Source: TobaccoFreeKids.org

Saturday, April 7 – Downtown Tyler Square – 9-11 a.m.

Saturday, April 14 – Orr Elementary School – 9-11 a.m.

Sunday, April 22 – Earth Day – Natural Grocers in Tyler