Tobacco-Free Cowboy to Ride into Montana Schools
Smoking and school children
Utah rodeo journalist and health educator "Cowboy Ted" Hallisey will ride into Montana next week to encourage schoolchildren across the state not to use spit tobacco.
His visit is hosted by the Tobacco Use Prevention Program of the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS) as part of "Through with Chew Week," a campaign designed to prevent and reduce spit tobacco addiction in Montana.
Cowboy Ted will tour schools to talk to kids about his eight rules for healthy living, which he equates with the eight-second rodeo ride. He will emphasize the risks of spit tobacco use.
"I want to reach kids with the message that spit tobacco is dangerous long before they ever start to use tobacco, before they become addicted," Hallisey said.
A recent survey of Montana high school students revealed that fewer than half believe that using spit tobacco puts one's health at risk. In fact, spit tobacco causes oral, esophageal, and stomach cancer, as well as a number of tooth and gum diseases. Those who are addicted are 50 times more likely to develop oral cancer than nonusers.
Twenty-seven percent of Montana high school senior males use spit tobacco, according to Linda Lee, supervisor of the Tobacco Use Prevention Program. As a whole, Montana men are addicted to spit tobacco at more than twice the national rate of 6 percent.
During Cowboy Ted's years in rodeo, he was addicted to spit tobacco, but while working as a radio personality in Utah he was asked to participate in an anti-tobacco program. The station urged him to quit using tobacco as part of an on-air feature. He did and now serves as a spokesman for the California Buck Tobacco Sponsorship and the National Tobacco-Free Rodeo projects.
Montanans who want to quit using spit tobacco can get help by calling the Montana Tobacco Quit Line, funded by DPHHS, at 1-866-485-QUIT (7848). The quit line provides free telephone counseling and nicotine replacement therapy.
Hallisey's program includes a 45-minute assembly encouraging kids to adopt the rules patterned after his Cowboy Ted Kids Club. The longtime cowboy and educator visits with students and teachers at schools and libraries nationwide each year. He will stop at schools in Sidney, Glendive, Lewistown, Helena, Superior, Pablo, Plains and Missoula on his five-day tour.
"My personal goal," he said, "is to touch the lives of a million children in my lifetime."
"Through With Chew Week" was established in 1989 by the American Academy of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery to decrease spit tobacco use and increase awareness of the negative health effects of using these products.