Tobacco-Free Living

A Tobacco-free Community

Live Well Live Atchison’s tobacco-free living strategies include:

Use: Implementing policies to reduce tobacco use and preventing youth and adults from becoming new tobacco users.
Policy & System Changes: Promoting policies and strategies that increase access, affordability, and use of smoking cessation services and treatments.
Social & Environmental Changes: Advocating for the adoption of policies that reduce exposure to secondhand smoke, especially children’s exposure; and addressing tobacco advertising.

We also aim to better educate the people of Atchison County about the effect of tobacco on their lives. The more people know about the dangers of tobacco use, the more support there will be for creating smoke-free environments.

Latest News

AHS Redmen participated in the #changethechew campaign against chewing tobacco use! There was some serious bubble blowing going on! Way to go!

Nearly 36.5 million adults currently smoke cigarettes.*

That doesn’t even account for young people or those using other harmful tobacco products.

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million

*According the the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention.

You only get one life.

We all know that tobacco use is bad for everyone’s health. In fact, it is the #1 cause of death in the United States.

Tobacco use is harmful to the body in so many ways. It can cause

Heart disease
Various cancers
Periodontal disease
Asthma
Chronic lower respiratory disease
Stroke
Infertility/impotence
Birth defects
Premature death

Not to mention the toll it takes on a person’s physical appearance causing yellow teeth, bad breath, and premature wrinkles.

Secondhand Smoke

Tobacco use is not only harmful to the individual, it’s also harmful to the community.

Secondhand smoke is just as harmful to one’s health as smoking itself, and it endangers neighbors, coworkers, friends, and children.

Adults: heart disease, stroke, various cancers
Children: asthma attacks, respiratory infections, ear infections

Tobacco doesn’t work.

Employers pay nearly $6,000 more per year in absenteeism, lost productivity, smoke breaks, and health-care costs for each worker who smokes cigarettes, according to a recent Ohio State University study

Be smart; Don't start.

Despite heightened awareness and enormous progress, thousands of young people start using tobacco every day as tobacco companies target our youth. Once kids start smoking, it is incredibly difficult to quit in adulthood, especially without support.

Tobacco has killed enough.

To discourage youth from using tobacco products we can…

Price tobacco products so that young people can’t afford them.
Restrict the marketing of tobacco products in our community.
Ban smoking at daycare centers, schools, hospitals, and parks.