Experiments

= Nils =

We will discuss the cost of using tobacco and demonstrate it's effects. Experience the lack of oxygen in the lungs caused by smoking. Determine the amount of tar the lungs accumulate from tobacco use. See how the tissues of the lungs become hard when your a smoker.

** Materials: ** - Drinking Straws - Dark Syrup or Molasses - Several Sponges - Water ** Can You Breathe?: ** The straw experiment. ** Tar Baby: **

Show the amount of tar that a pack-a-day smoker would inhale in a year (approximately 1 cupful,

according to the American Cancer Society). Pour 1 cup of thick, dark syrup or molasses slowly into

a tall, thin, clear container. Let participants guess when you will stop pouring.

Things 1. Straws 2. 2 butcket 3. 2 litters 4. dish waser soap. 5. clothes Caution: Be sure participants have no health restrictions before they take part in the exercise. The

effort needed to breathe through the straw resembles the characteristic shortness of breath

caused by emphysema.

** Stay Soft **

Allow participants to compare the feel of a damp, soft sponge and a dry, hard sponge. The

sponges demonstrate the difference between healthy lung tissue and damaged tissue.

Ask participants: Why is hardened lung tissue a problem? (Answer: Once the air sacs or Alveoli in

the lungs are hardened, they can no longer squeeze out air.)

Give each participant a 3-inch section of drinking straw. Explain the experiment:

- Run in place for 1 minute

- Put the straw in your mouth and breathe only through the straw (not through the nose)

- Bite gently on the straw as you try to breathe to simulate an even more severe case of

emphysema (slowly suffocating to death)

- Resume normal breathing without the straw

** Questions: **

- Were you surprised at the amount of tar inhaled by a pack-a-day smoker? Why or why not?

- What would happen if this were a 2 pack-a-day smoker?

Discuss participant reactions. Did they gulp of air? People with emphysema never get that gulp.

=Hanna=

** Facts:: **

- Millions of secondary students in the United States currently use tobacco.

- 20% of 7th graders use some form of tobacco

- Tobacco is the leading preventable cause of death in the United State.

- Poisons in tobacco are absorbed through the skin in the mouth and through the lungs. The

poisons manifest in the form of lung cancer.

- Tar from tobacco use accumulates in the lungs causing emphysema, which causes you to slowly

suffocate.

- Second hand smoke causes the same problems as actually smoking the cigarette.

** Now let’s look at the impact tobacco has on your health. **

Tobacco is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States. According to the Center for

Disease Control, tobacco kills more Texans than alcohol, AIDS, heroin, auto accidents, suicides,

handgun murders, and fires combined. The poisons in tobacco are absorbed through the skin in

the mouth and through the lungs causing body functions to slow down or stop. One of the poisons

in tobacco is tar. Tar is the black, oily stuff used to pave streets. It coats the air sacs in the lungs

until you can no longer breath and you suffocate to death (Suffocating to death in this way is called

emphysema). Over the years you are slowly suffocating, your body doesn’t get the amount of

oxygen it needs and the blood vessels get narrow, the kidney and bladder are washed with

tobacco poisons daily, and the heart is over worked. Soon a simple activity like walking is hard to

do.

=Clare=

** The Cost of Smoking: **

1. Have the children write down all the things they would do if they had $1,800.

2. Have them to multiply 365 by $5.00 (about the cost of a package of cigarettes/spit tobacco).

Answer: Approximately $1,800

If you saved $5.00 a day for one year, you would save $1,800.

If you spent $5.00 a day for one year on tobacco, what would you have? Nothing!

** Summary **

As you can see, tobacco has an impact on our health as well as our money. Also, breathing in

second hand smoke, smoke from someone else’s cigarette, has the same impact on your body

as if you were the one smoking. Avoid all tobacco and second hand smoke to increase your span

and your money supply.