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Cartoon Ant Carries Anti-Smoking Messageby Kimberlee Barbour I'm out of breath and now struggling for air. All for what, a few sweet, slow puffs on a cigarette? With time, I didn't even feel the 'high' I felt with my first drag. Now that I think about it, the first time wasn't even enjoyable. I coughed and gagged, knowing I was just doing it to feel cool in front of my older friends. Plus, mom and dad smoked. Why shouldn't I? 
Kalapalatha Guntupalli, M.D. Kalapalatha Guntupalli, M.D., hopes the AnteTobacco cartoon series she created keeps kids from becoming her patients later in life. Kalapalatha Guntupalli, M.D., Professor of Medicine–Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at BCM, knows this is what goes through the minds of her patients as they are hooked up to breathing machines in the Intensive Care Unit at Ben Taub General Hospital in Houston. She sees the end devastation of tobacco use by way of lung cancer, respiratory failure, heart attacks, emphysema and other cancers. "Many times it is too late to help these patients," she said. "Many of them wish they knew better when they were young." This is why Guntupalli, a physician and educator, wants to tell the world's children that tobacco is the reason behind most cases of preventable death. Death from tobacco use causes more fatalities than AIDS, alcohol, car accidents, murders, drugs and fires combined. She created the AnteTobacco cartoon series so she won't have to continue seeing patients like she does now. Its central message is "Say no the first time, and every time." It has been shown to 3,000 kids in Texas and 100,000 kids in India with hopes of reaching even more. "I am hoping that with the knowledge and information from the cartoon about the addictive nature and the ill health effects of tobacco, the children will be able to ask questions and make the right choice when they experience peer pressure later on," Guntupalli said.  The series consists of a 12-minute CD, a cartoon book and a coloring book, all of which convey the anti-tobacco message through a colony of ants. In the story, a young ant is lured by the excitement of tobacco, succumbs to temptations, is caught with tobacco by the grandpa ant, taught the dangers of tobacco and then vows never to try it again. He then learns that the reason grandpa ant is tired all of the time is because he uses tobacco. The family convinces the grandpa that, with their help, they can all say no to tobacco. Each day more than 3,000 kids become regular smokers, but lighting up isn't the only way kids use tobacco. According to the National Youth Tobacco Survey, almost 12 percent use spit tobacco or chewing tobacco. While the number of young cigarette smokers is still higher, Guntupalli warned that the number of smokeless tobacco users is steadily on the rise. The cartoon addresses both smokeless tobacco use and cigarettes in a way that children understand—with a storyline centered around family, pictures with bright colors and loveable characters with whom they can relate. When the program is presented in schools, students take a knowledge assessment survey before and after the cartoon. Most kids comprehend the ill effects of tobacco after the cartoon and want to know how to relay that message on to their parents and siblings who smoke. "They are asking questions, which is a good thing. This program opens the dialogue in school and at home about tobacco use," Guntupalli said. Reaching the children before they take their first cigarette is Guntupalli's misson.
Making sure kids have the knowledge to say no to tobacco is her goal in life and
AnteTobacco is helping her to do just that. |
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Volume 3, Issue 2, Summer 2007 |
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