Dear Senator Fred Risser;
We have been busy gathering information for your bill on vending machines. Our studies included a study of the health issues, second-hand/side-stream smoke, survey of places that had vending machines and where there are designated areas for smoking and nonsmoking.
Our questions and answers are listed below:
Some people like to smoke because their friends do. This is called peer pressure. Many times people think it will be fun and cool!! Most people start smoking by the age of 18. There are about 46 million adults that smoke in the United States. Each year 390,000 Americans die from the effects of smoking. Smoking shortens your life by 15 years. Some materials we read, said smoking is declining. That was encouraging as we hope educating us is helping.
A poisonous additive drug called nicotine is in tobacco. There are about 43 cancer causing chemicals in cigarettes. One of these is carbon monoxide, that is the same chemical that comes out of our car exhaust.
Smoking is BAD for our health. Your lungs get full of smoke and so does the air. Your breath, clothes, hair, home and cars smell of smoke. Your teeth and fingers may be stained a yellow color. That is disgusting!!!!! Cancer of lungs, throat and pancreas are common. Heart disease and ulcers also occur.
There were facts on the Internet relating to second-hand/side-stream smoke. If you get second-hand smoke, you have a greater chance of getting respiratory problems and cancer. You breathe the smoky air and it gets into our lungs. Our clothes and our hair also may become smoky smelling. This second-hand smoke can cause as much problem to a bystander as smoking can do to a smoker.
There are laws that tell smokers where they can smoke. In our survey, we found many places like malls, schools, and business places that have nonsmoking. There are nonsmoking and smoking areas in many restaurants, bars, motels, and hotels.
Our class liked this but would prefer it to be total nonsmoking since the smoky air still travels throughout the buildings. We understand that business can't go out of business because of smoking laws. So, it is understood why the law is set up that way it is. So, if people don't want second-hand smoke they will not go to those places.
Our class thinks that the label should be made larger and appear in all cigarette ads. Packages of cigarettes should also have larger warning labels.
We didn't find lots of vending machines that sold cigarettes. There are some in bars, gas stations, bowling alleys, outside some stores, and in some State Street businesses. We found that people can buy cigarettes at stores and the cigarettes are usually behind the counter. Many cashiers are responsible for the sale of the cigarettes. Some cashiers don't check ages and youth can purchase cigarettes over the counter.
The majonty of us agreed that vending machines that sell cigarettes should be removed.
Listed below are our reasons:
Senator Fred Risser
206 South State Capitol
P.O. Box 7882
Madison, WI 53707
Dear Senator Risser:
Enclosed is our final report for your bill about cigarette vending machines. We hope you'll find our information worthwhile. Our research has opened our eyes to many issues about smoking and our health.
Thank you for your participating in our Internet project. Internet, Cyberspace and email are meaningful words to us now. As fourth graders, we know a lot more about our government and how it works. Everyone enjoyed meeting and talking with you. We'll be watching to see what happens with your bill. Is it out of committee?
