ISSUE: Great American Smokeout

OUR VIEW: Attitudes as well as official actions are keys to curbing smoking

Smokers are again Thursday being asked to put aside their habit for a day in the 33rd American Cancer Society Great American Smokeout. The hope is that smokers will use the smoke-free 24 hours as a catalyst for kicking the habit -- which is unquestionably the best insurance a smoker can have to lengthen his or her life.

We know the arguments about smoking and smokers' rights. We know the economic contradiction that tobacco is in South Carolina, where a quarter of the population smokes. We also know that any smoker being honest with himself or herself knows the habit is not healthy.

Even the most hardened smoker will advise his children or other children not to begin smoking. You've heard the line: "I wish I hadn't started."

And smokers have heard the children say: "Put that cigarette down. Smoking is bad for you." The adult would be wise to listen.

Even worse, the adult's continuing behavior breaks down the negatives children are taught to associate with smoking. Actions indeed do speak louder than words.

It is part of the reason why cigarette smoking continues to be prevalent among South Carolina youth. That students say cigarettes are easy to get should surprise no one. But why are they such a popular commodity among youth?

If youths did not believe smoking is socially acceptable, they wouldn't, no matter how accessible cigarettes are or aren't.

We understand that many groups -- even the American Cancer Society -- are aiming at no less than outlawing smoking. Certainly, they want to take smoking out of public places as is being hotly debated in South Carolina communities even now.

Win or lose the battle to snuff out legal use of tobacco, they are kidding themselves about laws against smoking halting the habit among young people and/or adults. Even escalating the cost via a much-debated tax increase on cigarettes in South Carolina would have only so much impact.

It remains crucial that efforts to educate children about tobacco and why its use is anything but cool continue. After all, while it is true that laws work because most people are law-abiding, laws that are largely unenforceable get ignored. Better than any enforcement is lack of need for it.

The good news is that a lot of young people are deciding against tobacco, despite national reports of South Carolina's lack of formal anti-smoking efforts.

Since 1999, the youth smoking rate in South Carolina has dropped by half, from 36 percent to 18 percent.

In smoking as with many things in our society, adults have let young people down. Since there are and will be many smokers not quitting until they die -- quite possibly prematurely -- it will be up to future generations to gradually put out the fire of tobacco.

There is no better day than the Smokeout to add your life to the example that is needed.

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