Reality Check Fights Tobacco
Published: 07/30/2009 by Montgomery County Life
Reality Check is a New York State youth movement working to limit big tobacco’s access to youth.
Reality Check educates on the amount of tobacco industry advertising that is seen by youth in the
public, in magazines and in movies. They offer free movie days to the public, trips to Great Escape for Reality Check youth to educate the public, tables at community events and activities, presentations to schools and community groups and a wide-variety of other events. Reality Check youth are awarded the opportunity to learn about public speaking to enhance their skills, to learn how to talk with the media, to meet other youth from around New York State as well as their own county. They can become a leader in their county through participating as a County Youth Board Representative. Representatives are responsible for attending conferences, training, workshops and bringing the information back to their county. They’re responsible for a 3-county area.
There are some wonderful youth in Montgomery County who stand out from the Greater Amsterdam School District – Megan Paro, Sara Odintz, Jamie Gonzales, Andrea DeRose, Mike Spagnola, Patricia Snyder, Cinnamon Hawkins, Amber Mastropole, Cyndi Robertson, Mark Discenza, Hailey Markel, Merrissa Hart, and Misty Williams from Fonda-Fultonville Central School - Diahanna Gonzales, Hannah Burnham, Nicole Peeler, Ashley LaMont and Christina Doak from Canajoharie Central School – Shawna Christman, Hannah Monk, Cassie
Christman and Loretta Green from Fort Plain Central School – Jennifer Smith and Krystie Mento from St. Johnsville School District – Deandra Maynard, Alix Richard, Angela Banick, Kirsten Krause, Shiree Lyons, Richele Lyons, Sarah Beth Hagadorn, Megan Shaut and Molly Crowley.
Reality Check is New York State’s youth movement against the tobacco industry. Reality Check has been working on a School Library Initiative and a Smokefree Movies Initiative.
The School Library Initiative asks magazine companies to participate in “selective binding”. Selective binding provides schools with the opportunity to receive magazines in school libraries without tobacco advertisements.
In the fall of 2004, Reality Check surveyed 223 New York State school libraries. We found that over 70% of those surveyed subscribed to magazines that accept tobacco advertising and that 1.37 million New York students are exposed to these advertisements in their classrooms and libraries each year.
In June 2005, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer announced that the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) reached an agreement with two national magazine publishers to eliminate tobacco advertising from school library editions of four major magazines with high youth readership. The agreement was reached with Time, Inc. (which publishes Time, People and Sport Illustrated) and Newsweek, Inc. (which publishes Newsweek). This initiative has now been expanded to include all magazines that go to school libraries..
To date, Montgomery County Reality Check has gained the support in this initiative from Catholic Charities of Montgomery County, Montgomery County Board of Supervisors, Greater Amsterdam School District, Fonda-Fultonville School District, Tecler Elementary School Parent-Teacher Organization, The Hearing Aid Office, Montgomery County Youth Bureau Board Members and Fonda-Fultonville Parent Teacher Association.
Reality Check has also been working on the Smokefree Movies Initiative, where we are asking the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) to voluntarily rate movies “R” that have tobacco use or tobacco products in them. This voluntary step need not result in more films being rated R. It will simply keep smoking out of future G, PG and PG-13 films, producing potentially huge public health benefits at virtually no cost.
In a two-year study of several thousand students in New England, it was found that exposure to on-screen tobacco imagery is strongly associated with teen smoking initiation and after adjusting for all other factors, 10-14 year olds who see the most smoking on screen are nearly three times more likely to start smoking than those who see the least.
Over the last six years, 77 percent of live-action PG-13 films have featured tobacco. PG-13 movies are intensively promoted to the 12-17 year–old age group who are most susceptible to start smoking. Nine out of ten smokers begin in their teens.
Reality Check members will continue to present on the School Library Initiative and the Smokefree Movies Initiative to other school districts in the county, PTA and PTO organizations, as well as various community groups.
Four thousand teens will try their first cigarette today. Tobacco is the #1 cause of preventable death, killing 438,000 Americans every year. If you are a teen or are a parent who has a teen who would like to help us in our fight against the tobacco industry, please contact Suzanne Hagadorn, Montgomery County Program Coordinator at (518) 842-4202 x 3122
