Teens and smoking

Regarding the Feb. 13 Point of View piece “Clear savings when smoking ceases”: As a high school student, I have been presented information about the dangers of tobacco since fifth grade, but as my peers and I grow older, the level of concern rises along with our willingness to enact change.

We have been exposed to enough information about secondhand smoke that even when we go out to eat we don’t want to go to restaurants with patrons smoking outside of the facility. The health and safety ramifications for smoking or second hand smoke exposure exceed any imaginary “cool points.”

We have to protect ourselves and the generations to come. Government funds are critical in order to keep programs in place that teach us the techniques and procedures to eliminate tobacco use. All teenagers can agree, we want to help ourselves, but in the realm of tobacco prevention we realize that funding is simply something we cannot provide on our own.

Karmen Kurtz

Raleigh