EAU CLAIRE, Wis., April 23 /PRNewswire Interactive News Release/ -- Despite the myriad of anti-smoking campaigns and the millions of dollars being spent to warn children of the dangers of smoking and nicotine addiction, today's parents still worry that t

In a recent poll of parents of children between the ages of six and 17, conducted by the independent research organization Market Facts TeleNation for BTIO Educational Products, Inc. (BTIO), nearly 55 percent of those surveyed said they are "very" (31.8 percent) to "somewhat" (23 percent) concerned or worried that their child or children might try smoking now or sometime in the future. When asked whether schools should be involved in making children aware of the dangers of smoking and nicotine addiction, over 90 percent of parents participating in the survey said they believe schools should be involved and almost two-thirds of respondents said schools should be "very involved" and that nicotine addiction education should be part of classroom curriculum. The survey was conducted over the first weekend in April with 308 parent respondents coast to coast. "Results of this survey show that, despite all of the anti-smoking campaigns, parents continue to be very concerned about the risk that their children may try smoking and become addicted to nicotine," said Mary Jurmain, Chief Executive Officer and President of the survey's sponsoring organization, BTIO Educational Products, Inc. (BTIO). BTIO is a firm that provides educational products and supporting curriculum to help students make informed choices about serious life matters like smoking. BTIO just launched a new product for classroom use called the NICoteen(TM) Program that features a small cigarette pack sized device that demands students "smoke" 10 or more times a day. "If you have a comprehensive anti-smoking program, but studies show it doesn't produce any long-term effect, then it's just not a success," Jurmain contends. "We need programs that will come to have a demonstrated impact on behavior." In order to bring about that behavioral impact, BTIO has created the NICoteen(TM) Pack smoking simulator and curriculum. During each simulated smoke, students must speak one of seven pre-approved voice recognition messages into the pack. The Pack then tells students such things as how much time smoking has taken from their lives and how much money they're spending on cigarettes. The simulated lesson drives home again and again that they are "not in control" of their lives when they become addicted to nicotine. "While smoking in the adult population has remained steady, it has actually been increasing among teens and preteens," Jurmain said. "The 2001 Surgeon General's Report on Women and Smoking, for example, is a chilling document. It shows that 30 percent of high school girls reported smoking in the month the study was conducted. This is very significant because, as the Report notes, nearly all women smokers begin in high school. The frightening connection, as the Report states, is that 68,000 women now die each year from lung cancer, 50 percent more than die of breast cancer. "The bottom line, as our survey affirms, is that all of us involved in raising and educating the youth of this country, still have a lot of work to do," Jurmain concluded.

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