Smoke-Free Class of 2000

                What Is The Smoke-Free Class Of 2000?

                          The Smoke-Free Class of 2000 is a national project of the American Lung Association, American Cancer
                          Society, and the American Heart Association.

                          Recognizing that all three agencies have many common goals, and responding to former Surgeon General C.
                          Everett Koop's call for a smoke-free society by the year 2000, these agencies have pledged to work together
                          through joint efforts aimed at America's youth.

                          This 12-year education and awareness project focuses on children who entered first grade in 1988 and who
                          will graduate high school in the year 2000. These three million students are ideally suited to become the
                          ambassadors and advocates for a tobacco-free society.

                          During the 1994-95 school year approximately 120,000 teachers and over 2 million students nationwide
                          participated in this exciting project.

                          The Smoke-Free Class of 2000 project is a wonderful way for middle school and junior high school students
                          to understand the risks of this deadly addiction and how their free choices are being affected by the
                          tobacco industry and the media. It also gives them the information and skills to become advocates for a
                          tobacco-free community.

                    The Primary Goals of the Smoke-Free Class of 2000 are to:

                          1. Increase students' awareness of their ability to choose a healthy lifestyle.

                          2. Empower students to become advocates for a tobacco-free society.

                          3. Provide the students of the Class of 2000, their families, and their teachers with tobacco-use awareness
                          materials designed especially for them.

                          4. Focus media attention on these students as the ambassadors and advocates of a new tobacco-free
                          generation.

                          5. Encourage the adoption of tobacco-use prevention education programs in the context of comprehensive
                          school health education.

                    Why It's Important To Inform Young People

                          1. Each day more than 3,000 American teenagers start smoking. At least 3.1 million adolescents are current
                          smokers.

                          2. Tobacco is often the first drug used by young people who use alcohol and illegal drugs.

                          3. Peers, siblings, and friends are powerful influences. Over 50 percent of teens report smoking their first
                          cigarette with a friend.

                          4. Spit tobacco is definitely not a safe alternative to cigarettes.

                          5. Teens become dependent on nicotine as quickly as adults, and find it just as difficult to quit.

                          6. The tobacco industry spends over $5.2 billion a year on advertising to convince young people they
                          should take up smoking.

                          7. Tobacco advertising increases young people's risk of smoking by conveying that smoking has social
                          benefits and is far more common than it really is.

                          8. Advertising aimed at women increases smoking among teenage girls.

                    The Smoke-Free Class of 2000 Curriculum

                          The Smoke-Free Class of 2000 1995-96 curriculum for middle school and junior high school includes:

                                1. "Too Smart To Start-Too Cool To Smoke": a Video-Plus resource program for teenagers in the
                                classroom and community. The "video" is the lesson and the "plus" is the resource guide.

                                The video is a fast-paced 20-minute mix of dramatic documentary segments, comedy sketches,
                                straight facts and contemporary music that will simultaneously entertain and inform teens. Created
                                by an Emmy award-winning team, the video empowers teens while encouraging them to join the
                                fight for a tobacco-free environment.

                                2. Plus the resource guide:

                                1. Use it in the classroom or with a youth group.

                                2. Use it as a one-session unit or program built around the video.

                                3. Develop it into an integrated unit.

                                4. Five optional theme areas provide discussions, projects and activities for students to reinforce
                                skills in reading, writing, research (computer and library skills), math, critical thinking, decision
                                making and creative problem solving. Enables students to develop life skills and knowledge about
                                how tobacco affects health.

                    Further Information Is Available On:

                          1. How your child can become a member of the Smoke-Free Class of 2000.

                          2.How your class, school or school district can participate in the SFC 2000 project.

                          3. Tobacco and its harmful effects.

                          4. How to create a tobacco-free environment in your home and community.

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