A number of positive thinking Somerville kids took their anti-smoking awareness campaign to the public as they participated in the national Kick Butts Day last week. ~Photos by Douglas Yu

By Douglas Yu

Eleven-year-old Mariana Plata never met her grandfather, because he had lung cancer due to smoking when he was alive. More importantly, this young mind realized that the danger of tobacco is affecting not only adults, but her peers as well.

On March 18, Plata was among the 12 youths from Somerville who joined the national Kick Butts Day, an annual campaign that encourages thousands of young people nationwide to promote public awareness of the danger of cigarettes, especially to minors.

This year, Kick Butts Day focused on how the tobacco industries spend billions of dollars on marketing their products to appeal to alternative customers: young adults.

“Big tobacco is targeting youth as replacement smokers,” said Lovelee Heller, Program Director of the Somerville Cares About Prevention. “And the number one reason why young people smoke is because they think everybody is doing it.”

Somerville Cares About Prevention is a community-based coalition, created to help youth reduce substance abuse, as well as to influence them to make positive choices. Heller pointed out there is a common misconception that makes an impact on young smokers: most people smoke.

In fact, in Somerville alone, only eight percent of young adults smoke, according to Heller. “There is a steady decline in the number of youth smoking each year,” she said. “In just two years, it went from 89 percent that don’t smoke to 92 percent.”

In 2013, Hillel Alpert, a researcher at the Harvard School of Public Health, told Scientific American that tobacco companies continue targeting youth in the U.S. by adding flavors to small cigars and other tobacco products. Years ago, a North Carolina-based tobacco company, R.J. Reynolds was forced to stop selling their candy, fruit, and alcohol-flavored cigarettes since research found a link between their products and a rise in youth smoking rates.

“Sweet is not equally safe,” Heller said. “Last year, we told young people that tobacco was marketed in candy-like flavors to appeal to young people. And we encourage young people to make the right decision for themselves.”

Along with Plata, Luca Duclos-Orsello, 13 years old, is another community member who participated in the national Kick Butts Day in Somerville this year. On an unusually windy day, these kids voluntarily chalked messages, including “we are not replacements,” and “National Kick Butts Day” on ground that stretches for four blocks, all the way from the front door of Somerville City Hall to the Somerville Public Library.

“A lot of people who smoke know smoking is a problem, but they are not going to stop.” Duclos-Orsello said. “We want to tell Somerville that most people don’t smoke. But there is help if they do, and we hope to stop kids from smoking before they become addicted to it.”

It was Duclos-Orsello’s second time to join the campaign. When he recalled his first time writing messages right outside of the Somerville High School, he mentioned he was asked many questions by the students at the high school. “They started becoming aware of the danger of smoking, which makes me very happy,” he said.

Before marching toward the next block in the biting wind to draw their messages, these children, aged 10 to 13, briefly stopped by the mayor’s office to give him a pin that read “Fight Big Tobacco.”

However, they are not the only group that stands up for the idea of tobacco-free young adults. Somerville Positive Forces (SPF), a local youth organization working to promote a positive community to support happy healthy youth, has two other groups of advocates: SPF 100, which consists of high school students, and SPF Alumni, made up by college students. The group that Duclos-Orsello and Plata were part of is SPF Junior.

“Peers listen to peers. And that makes a big difference to them when other young people are making healthy choices and trying to let other young people do the same thing,” Heller said, describing the National Kick Butts Day’s impact on young adults. “The youth can be very strong assets in making positive change to the community they live in.”