What about you?; Should I smoke?

The following program is distributed by the national educational radio network. What about you. What about me. Yes what about you. If you write to the power they're growing up saying and so what about you. Are you. My name isn't Imus. My job is to help boys and girls grow up to be healthy. What about you. Bird is a big question that each boy and girl must dance or it is an important question that calls for a thoughtful answer this question is Should I smile. I'd like to tell you about how woman boy Juri answered this question one morning several weeks ago I was in my office when Jerry knocked on the door. Yes can we have. Why hello to Mary. My teacher sent me down to

see you Miss No on. What's the trouble. She sent you a note here. Well let's see. You were smoking is that right Jerry. Sure Miss Nolan. Lots of kids. Is that why you decided to smoke. I guess so. Besides I wanted to see what it was like where did you get the cigarettes. They're my dad he has lots of them by the curtain. Does your dad know that you're smoking. No would he want you to smile. You keep saying he doesn't want me to smile but he smokes. I guess words are ok for him it's all right for me when I see your package of cigarettes Jerry. Sure but why or why I just want to show you something here or there. Do you see this printing on the side of the package. Would you read it for me. Caution. Cigarettes may be hazardous hazardous to your health. Do you know what that means. Not exactly.

We all know we can find out. I have one of your cigarettes. Of course Miss No on. I'll just light it. I didn't know you smoke. I used to do before I found out how dangerous it was. Do you one of those tissues where you I want to show you something. Sure. You don't smoke now. No I stopped. Now I want you to see what happens when I blow some of the smoke through those tissue. There now let's look at the tissue. See that big brown stain. What is it. It's tobacco tar from the cigarette. How did it get there. It was in the cigarette smoke. Now I want to do this again and this time I'm going to inhale some of the smoke from your cigarette. Do you know what that means. Inhale. You take the smoke getting people. Yes you inhale the smoke into your lungs. But I've blown it through another tissue. Look at it. There's another brown stain but it's not as dark of the first time. Where do you think the rest of those tobacco tires went when I

inhaled. I don't know. Did they stay inside you. That's right. Every time you smoke a cigarette some of the tobacco tires stay inside you heavy cigarette smokers cope there Miles and throats and lungs with these gooey tobacco tards. Are they bad doctors think they are. They think those tires can cause cancer lung cancer or cancer of the mouth and throat. Yeah I tell you what I'm going over the high school for ed classes are working on some smoking projects for the science fair. Would you like to come with me to her. High school I took a tour you did the science lab and then you do think it was just aren't used to so I'm sure you would like to see some of the experiments your students are working on about smoking. Let's run Jerry. I've got some business at the office up you up later

Jerry. OK Mr. Nolan. Very well. Why don't you come over here to begin with. We got something you might be interested in. Yes Mr. Sorenson. This is Jerry drawing your nicotine experiment where you of course combined your experiment is over here. By the way do you know what nakedness I have heard of it. Nicotine. It's a drug. A poison found in tobacco cigarette smoke. Oh it with their brown stuff and cigarettes. Well you know those attackers nicotine is something else and cigarettes and can't see smell or taste nicotine. But if they're right. Well here's my experiment. You see I'm trying to show something that scientists already know. Nicotine is a killer. In fact it's so good a killer that they put it insecticides Kwai insecticides you know bug killers here. Well since cigarette smoke contains nicotine. Here's what I did.

I put 10 cigarettes in this day and it poured a little water over them and let them soak overnight. The water will absorb the nicotine from the cigarettes. Over here I've got a box with some flies in it. Watch what happens. I put water from the cigarettes in the spray bottle and I'm going to spray it over the flies. Look what you see. The flies are dying. They really are dying. There's a nicotine cigarettes kill him. It certainly is going to kill me if you get enough. When you smoke a cigarette from one to two milligrams of nicotine into your body this isn't enough to kill a human being but it is enough because in changes in the body or current of changes well it causes your hands and feet to get cold and clammy your heart beat faster and your blood pressure increases. Oh. Nicotine makes some people faint and dizzy. Sometimes it makes them sick to their stomachs. You know nicotine is a habit forming drug don't you.

You mean it's hard to stop smoking once you start. Yes I was reading about some scientist who injected monkeys with nicotine. They gave him a shot every hour about the same amount of nicotine it's in a cigarette. Then they stopped giving the monkeys the nicotine. What do you think happened. I don't know. The monkeys gave Ansel shots of nicotine. He must have felt they needed it. So you see we know Mickie news habit forming. Wow. Say why don't you reduce you to Sandra. Sandy Yes. We have a visitor. This is Jared. Tell me about your research. Well you of course. Hi Jerry. I want to come over here. Let's start with this chart I've made about the way smoking affects the human body. OK. Suppose I read it through for you. If there's something you don't understand stop me OK. OK. Smoking dolls the taste buds and kills appetite understand they are things don't taste as good to smokers and they aren't as hungry as other people. That's right. Smoking

lessens the lungs ability to work increases breath and this means smokers get short of breath easily. This is why most athletes don't smoke. Smoking causes the arteries to contract or get smaller exhaust decreasing circulation and lowering the body's temperature staff. I don't get there. Well let me explain it this way. If I took the temperature of your hands and feet and then you smoked a cigarette and then I took your temperature again. Do you know what we'd find. No we'd find that the temperature of your hands and feet would have dropped about 5 degrees. Honest Anna. Here's the next one. Smoking causes irritation of the lining of the nose throat and lungs causing some people to have a chronic cough stuff. Is that what a smoker's cough is. Yes my dad got a little cough. He smokes you think it's from the cigarettes. It could be. Here's the next one. Smoking causes the heart rate increase in the blood pressure to rise. I don't get that. Suppose we have a demonstration Mr starts on

this and I'd like to show dearie how cigarette smoking affects the heart rate. We demonstrate on you certainly. First take my pulse you see Jerry. I just put my fingers on Mr. Sorenson's wrist and count the beats I hear in this way Sandy can tell how fast my heart is beating. It's 72 beats a minute. Mr. Sorenson 72 beats a minute is a normal heart rate for a grown man Jerry. Now I'm going to smoke just one cigarette Sander while I'm smoking why don't you show Jerry are smoking. OK it's over here. We use it to collect the tires and cigarette smoke. Here it is. Why it looks like a gallon jug of water in a pump. How does it work. The cigarette girl was in this little 2 and the two brands into the jug. Then we put the holes from a vacuum pump into the jug too. Then what happens. Well we light the cigarette and pop on the pump. This draws the smoke from the cigarette into the jug of water.

What are all those brown specks on top of the water. Those are tobacco ties. We skim them off and put them in the small jar. Gee there must be nearly half a jar of that sticky brown stuff just about. And you know Jerry this is the amount of tires that the average to pick a day smoker would absorb into his body in two months. Sandra Jared cigarette smoke ready to have you take my pulse again right. Remember Gerri before I smoked a cigarette my heart was beating 72 times a minute. What is it now. Ninety three beats per minute. Your heart rate has increased 21 beats per minute. You see my heart has to work harder to pump my blood around because the cigarette smoke made my arteries smaller. That isn't very good for your heart is it. No it isn't. Doctors think this is why smokers have more coronary heart disease than on smokers. Smokers have more also colds bronchitis the nonsmokers do. That's right Sandy.

And we mustn't forget to tell Gerri that more smokers die from cancer particularly lung cancer than nonsmokers. Well I get lung cancer if I smoke. I don't know Jerry but the odds aren't very good. You see one smoker out of every eight gets lung cancer. Now during what did you think of the science fair smoking projects. They were really something especially that smoking machine I'm going to make on for my class. We've got just one more stop at the medical school. There are some things I'd like to show you there. OK misnomer. This is Dr. Atkins theory. Hello Jerry. Hi Doctor. I want you to tell me about your experiments with the mice and cigarette smoking. Be glad to Miss Nolan. You see Jerry we put 36 mice into a special cage. We gave him good food and they had good living conditions. But every day we expose them to the smoke of 12 cigarettes. This is what the average smoker smokes each day.

What happened to them right. Well 13 of them got it all and died in the first two months of the experiment that left 23. What about them. I'm over here. I'll show you now this is the cage look for yourself. There are only two mice in there. That's right only two came through the rest of the mice developed lung tumors and died long tumors lung cancer. The cigarettes make them get one answer. We think it did. Let me show you something else very important exhibit we have here we are. You know what those two things are. You know they are human lives. They've been preserved by a special process so our medical students can see what lung tissue looks like. Now this first lung is a healthy lot. You see how pink it is. It's good that it's pink. That means it's very elastic. See it stretches a lot needs to stretch in order to do its job of breathing exchanging carbon

dioxide for oxygen. Wow. Now let's look at this. It's a human lung to what happened to it. It's oh yes it's dark stiff and leathery it has been damaged by heavy smoking tobacco TAR is collected in this long and smoke have irritated the walls. They grow thick and lost their elasticity. The alarm couldn't stretch properly and this made it difficult for the long to do which breathing job. If we look at this lung through a microscope we see changes in the cells cell changes that we think lead to cancer. My dad smokes. Do you think your lungs look like this. I hope not Gerri. You know the human lungs are wonderful organs. They cleanse themselves. If your dad stops smoking he has a much better chance of having healthy lungs. What about me Jerry. The best advice I can give you is this if you aren't smoking. Don't start it if you are smoking stop.

Driving back to school in the car dearie was quiet. I knew he was thinking about everything you've seen and heard. He had made his decision. What will you say when someone asked you to smoke a cigarette. What will you answer to that big question. Should I smoke. Jerry has decided to say no. What about you. What about you with the production of WFTV educational broadcasting service of the pointe Community School. The cast included Rand Simberg Mark Klein Christine Rolfe Beverly both Brett ARRINGTON And John do this is every row. This is the national educational radio network. A.

The following program is distributed by the national educational radio network. What about you. What about me. Yes what about you. It is if it feels right to the bone. They're clean as a whistle. Growing up safe and sound. What about you what about me. Are you growing up not being my new business. I'm assuming my job is to help boys and girls grow up to be healthy and safe. What about you. Saturday night Larry Silver didn't really get the most parties are

doing usually a good driver that night drinking Jimmy 17 years old not old enough to drink right with a party. Now he feels good. Sort of like you can do anything easily stop lighting had him seize it. But it takes longer to bring a light was off racing with the car in the right hand laying his present down on the gas and he pulls up in front. He's traveling to the road is a little blurry curve ahead. Jim can't make it. The car swerves and get the train. There it is.

A car hit a tree. The driver was going to get just a kid. Now that alcohol is just passed out. Looks like we've got another drunk driver. Wonder the kid didn't kill him so this is just one of thousands of accidents that are caused by police officials estimate that the use of alcohol is involved in over 60 percent of all of our automobile accidents but this particular accident up a lot of excitement in our school you see dem or E. lives in our neighborhood. Most of our boys and girls heard about the accident. The children could talk a little help from the following Monday morning. Bill is really a man who is like drinking whiskey or beer. Would that make him do there. Yes I guess so.

Kids aren't supposed to drink. I know it's the law was eager to go to the hospital. You know we had a few cuts and bruises. The police took him down to the jail. What I told you had to guess the reason a lot of the trouble he's really been drinking. What I did was right. People drink alcoholic beverages for many reasons. Some drink to relax others to forget their troubles. Dmn drank for the thrill and because others were drinking he didn't realize how dangerous alcohol is for young people. You see a little alcohol has a big effect on a young person's body. It can make him do foolish and unwise things. Mrs. Johnson a sixth grade teacher at our school thought that this might be a good time for the boys and girls to learn more about alcoholic beverages and how they affect our bodies. So that morning she said I know you've all heard about what happened to Jim Murray. Would you like to find out how accidents like this happen when people drink. Yeah.

Well first I'm sure you all know that there are many kinds of alcohol the kind people drinking alcoholic beverages is called ethyl alcohol. It's a colorless liquid made from grain fruit or potatoes. This Jensen beer isn't a strong as yet. Well it's true that doesn't contain as high a percentage of alcohol as some other liquors but people usually drink larger amounts of beer and a bottle of beer has about the same percentage of alcohol as one drink of whiskey. Yes Betty is alcohol a poison. Not as we generally think of poisons. It might poison a young child or a person who is allergic to it. But it has a doubling effect on most people. We can call it a kind of drug. It's like a narcotic or an anesthetic. Do you know what these drugs do think put you to sleep. Yes they relax and dull the brain so we can't feel pain. Alcoholic beverages do the same thing.

I always thought outcome people be so goofy do funny things. I see in America then TV you're right that a person often XLE after drinking Marie he may do foolish things laughs at jokes that aren't funny embarrasses other people or thinks he's the life of the party. This is because the alcohol he has drunk has a part of his brain that controls his judgment. He doesn't see himself as he really is a part of his brain. Is this what happened to all these things. Why don't we have Miss Nolan the school nurse come in and talk to us. I know she has a good filmstrip about alcohol. It's dampened out and you've been learning about alcohol. I'd like to have you meet Charlie. He's a cartoon character filmstrip I'm going to show you. He's a grown man who weighs about 100 pounds. And we'll see what happens inside Charlie's body when he takes a drink. I drink of an alcoholic beverage. I would like to run the filmstrip projector for me.

It's all ready to go. And I do so many hands Miss Johnson help me decide. A Don why don't you do it this time next time someone else will have a turn. All right now here is Charlie and here's the alcoholic beverage he's drinking. Here he goes he's drinking it. Next picture. What do you see. Look at the landing of his throat and stomach. It's turned all red. Well that shows that the alcohol is irritating the membranes of his throat and stomach. This is just one way alcohol affects our body. Now the alcohol is in Charlie stomach and a little blood vessels in the stomach wall are absorbing it. You know most foods have to be digested before they can be used by our bodies but not alcohol. It can be absorbed just like it is when you drink it. It goes right into Charlie's bloodstream either through the walls of his stomach or the walls of his small intestine. Next picture.

What's happening here. Can the bloodstream is curing the alcohol all over Charlie's body. Yes the bloodstream is curing the alcohol right to Charlie's brain. This happens very fast within 30 seconds. Less than half a minute after Charlie takes a drink some alcohol has reached his brain tissue. Notice what happens to Charlie's brain. Next picture done. CD alcohol has dolled in darkened part of Charlie's brain. The nerve centers that control the way he makes decisions are sleep. The alcohol keeps him from working as fast as they should. Charlie will start to relax. He may act foolish or take risks do things or say things that he wouldn't normally do and say Now in the filmstrip Charlie keeps on drinking and let's see what happens. What's happened here. Murray looks like more of his brain is asleep. That's

right. More alcohol in Charlie's blood means that more of his brain will be dolled after just a couple of drinks. Charlie wouldn't be able to act as fast or as skillfully as he could before he couldn't shoot a straighter type a letter as fast or run a machine as well if he were driving a car he couldn't react to a stop sign or a traffic light is fast. Other parts of Charlie's brain are affected too. The parts that control his sense organs. Charlie isn't hearing or seeing as well as he should Don. How long does the alcohol stay in Charlie's brain. Well done the alcohol affects his brain. As long as it's in his system Charlie's body is busy burning up the alcohol he is drunk and when it is used up all of the alcohol his brain will return to normal. Now this takes quite a long time. Over an hour for each serving of an alcoholic beverage the Charlie

drinks. If Charlie doesn't drink anymore and he stays out of trouble and doesn't drive he probably will be rid of all the alcohol he has drunk by the next morning. But let's see what might happen if Charlie didn't stop drinking. More of his brain is Dylan. Yes. You see as Charlie continues to drink his body can't burn up the alcohol fast enough. More and more alcohol gets into his bloodstream and more and more of Charlie's brain is affected. Charlie is having trouble walking and talking and even standing up. If he keeps on drinking this might happen. Charlie has passed out. His brain has gone to sleep. We say he's unconscious but if you drink any additional alcohol before he passed out the part of his brain that controls his breathing might be paralyzed. And with almost all of

his brain knocked out. This is where we find Charlie. In a conference room drinking yes you have Charlie drank a large amount of alcohol in a short period of time. Death can result. And remember Charlie is a grown man who weighs one hundred fifty pounds alcohol works much faster in a smaller person's body. That is why alcohol is so dangerous for young people is not as known. Yes we have several teenage deaths each year because someone dares a teenager to drink a large amount of alcohol. His brain is paralyzed and he dies. This is why it's against the law for young people to drink. Well it's one of the reasons bath we try to protect young people by making alcoholic beverages illegal until they reach a certain age. We hope by the time you are old enough to drink you will be wise enough not to drink or we hope you will only use alcohol in small amounts. What happens if the kid

does drink like Jim. Why don't we ask someone from the police department to come and tell us. I asked Officer Samantha Bee from the city police department to come and talk to us. When he arrived he was carrying a small green box with all sorts of dials on it and a tube sticking out of the top officers Umansky the boys and girls would like to know what happened to a young person who's been drinking and is picked up by the police. We are particularly interested in what happened to Jim Murray. Oh the boy who hit the tree. Yes well after we found out he wasn't hurt we took him down to the jail. We wanted to give him a breathalyzer test to see how much alcohol he had had in his system. I thought you might like to see what one of these breathalyzers looks like so I brought one along. Would you like to demonstrate it Forrest. Yeah fine.

Now can I want you to blow right into this little tube. You haven't been drinking it have you. We'll soon find out. Yeah well you see when you blow into the tube Your breath is caught in a little cylinder and it runs through this little container of chemicals. I noticed the chemicals are bright yellow. There is alcohol and breath it will fade the color of the chemicals they will turn pale yellow or if he's really had a lot of alcohol in his system they'll turn pale green. All right can blow. There. I noticed the chemicals didn't change color at all. I guess you were telling the truth. Boys and Girls. This breathalyzer test is important because it tells us how much alcohol a person has in his system. You see it's against the law to drive when you've had too much to drink and it's against the law for a young person to have anything to drink. Jim Murray was breaking the law when he took a drink and breaking another law when he drove a

car with too much alcohol in his system. When we gave him the breathalyzer test it showed he was driving under the influence of alcohol. What happened to him. He was charged and there will be a hearing before a judge. He can lose his driver's license be sentenced to jail receive a fine or all of these things can happen. It's up to the judge to decide. You see boys and girls laws have to be strict. Just a few drinks can make a person particularly a young person like him lose his ability to control his actions. He may do reckless things that endanger his safety or the safety of others. We hope that you will think before you drink. Another accident. Was. Caused by someone drinking. One who couldn't. Think. Clearly because of alcohol. Johnson's class knows how dangerous alcoholic beverages can be. What about you.

What about you is a production of WFB educational broadcasting service of the Flint. This is the national educational radio network.