CAL fifth and sixth graders see health risks of tobacco use at Red Ribbon Week assembly

The last day of school before Halloween was the perfect time to incorporate pig lungs with a lesson that may already be a little spooky for young children and their guardians.

Community and Family Resources, Prairie Ridge Integrated Behavioral Healthcare and Franklin County Family Focus last week teamed up for a Red Ribbon Week presentation at CAL Elementary School for fifth and sixth graders.

Red Ribbon Week, which ran from Oct. 23 to Oct. 31 this year, aims to bring drug, alcohol and violence prevention awareness to communities and schools.

Last Friday, Ben Rasmussen, a prevention specialist with Community and Family Resources out of Fort Dodge, helped CAL students see first hand the effects of tobacco and nicotine use on the body. Using an air pumping apparatus, Rasmussen showed students the difference between a healthy set of pig lungs and a set that had been exposed to nicotine use (postmortem). Students were able to see the appearance of extensive nicotine exposure as well as how that affected the function of lungs.

Rasmussen said this lesson is effective because it gives students an idea of how tobacco and nicotine affect the body without pressuring them into a decision of whether or not to use those products.

“We use the pig lungs to talk more broadly about tobacco and cigarettes but some of the damage we see happens with vape pens as we see happens with traditional cigarettes,” he said. “Once they start using one substance, it’s easier to transition into others…so we’re just trying to educate and make kids aware.

“Substance abuse education has really changed in recent years,” he added. “It was mostly scare tactics and now it’s transitioned on to educate and give youth and adults the facts about everything of what it’s going to do to you, how it will affect you and have the individual make the decision.”

Rasmussen said, more than ever, tobacco awareness in younger children is important because of how modern products are marketed and loosely targeted towards younger audiences. He said fifth and sixth graders, even seventh graders, begin to develop a curiosity regarding drugs and alcohol and if they have more information and facts in front of them, they may be less likely to make a dangerous choice.

“They’re at a really transition age,” he said. “They’re starting to develop and figure out who they are and they’re trying to figure out this and that, so they may be more likely to make a risky decision.”