Hairy tongue, head and neck cancers, lung cancer, tar, phlegm, bad breath, yellow teeth, wrinkled skin, people with laryngectomies and many other sights and sounds are presented in this definitive look at the ravages of tobacco. Teen viewers discover that they are prime targets of tobacco advertisers who need new young customers to replace the older ones who have died from the many tobacco-related diseases. Video introduces viewers to young victims such as twenty-year-old Brandon Carmichael who lost half of his leg due to a tobacco related disease and his inability to quit smoking. Program also alerts teens to the newest tobacco dangers of herbal cigarettes and bidis that attract teens with special packaging that makes this product look appealing. After viewing this video, students will come away with a lasting impression that tobacco use only leads to death and disease.
Includes:
video, plus teacher’s resource book, student handouts and pre/post tests in digital format
Awards
CINE Golden Eagle
Columbus International Film & Video Festival: Bronze Plaque
Health Sciences Communication Association: Bronze Award
Reviews
Peer pressure, family history, advertisements and the media all play a part in encouraging teenagers to smoke cigarettes. This program reiterates the dangers of smoking. Brandon Carmichael, a teenager who started smoking when he was fifteen years old, tells how smoking affected his life. Bob Herbst tells viewers in detail how he lost his larynx (voice box) and now speaks through a hole in his neck. His story is even more heartbreaking because he knew what cigarettes could do and he chose to smoke anyway. His grandfathers had emphysema and his father only has one lung. At the end of the program additional clips are available that include a representative from the American Lung Association showing a healthy lung and explaining the job of the cilia. An interactive multiple choice quiz and a list of additional resources make this program an asset to library collections.
Highly recommended, this program would be of particular use in health and physical education courses in junior high school. Terms are clearly defined and displayed on screen, making it easy for students to take notes. In particular, lung cancer, emphysema, arteriosclerosis, halitosis and Buerger’s disease are defined with graphic illustrations. These illustrations send a strong message to teens about what they are doing to themselves when they smoke.
- Katherine Parsons, Information Literacy Outreach Librarian, Bronx Community College
Educational Media Reviews Online (EMRO)