No Smoking Please

By Josh Greene, PhoenixMercury.com
Posted: July 2, 2004

Mercury forward Kayte Christensen understands the importance of staying away from smoking. And it�s not because she knows that cigarette smoke can hinder her performance on the court. She knows that it is a deadly habit with zero benefits. And, unfortunately, she knows that from first-hand experience.

�My dad�s sister died at 45 of breast cancer,� Christensen said. �She smoked like a chimney. Their mother, she died four or five years ago from lung cancer. It was quite an experience just because I grew up watching everyone smoking around me. I actually tried it when I was younger because I just thought that was what you did.�

Studies show that children who live in households with relatives that smoke are more likely to begin lighting up themselves and Christensen was no exception. Believe it or not, she took up the habit back in third grade.

�It wasn�t like I smoked every day,� she said. �We just snuck them out, my sisters and I. That�s why it�s important to get the word out to kids, because no one told me. I saw everyone I knew doing it, so I just thought it was normal."

Mercury teammate Tamara Moore is not a smoker. She admits she tried it once and says it was a one-time mistake that most definitely won�t happen again.

�I can�t lie and say that I haven�t smoked,� she said. �I have. I know I can tell you exactly what date I tried it. That�s how not a smoker I am. I can remember the day I had my first smoke. After that day I never did it again.�

Even though the forward quickly abandoned a habit millions of Americans are trying to kick on a daily basis, Moore had to contend with basketball teammates who smoked. And no, not the Mercury. Moore spent this past WNBA offseason with Nice in the French Pro League. And to say smoking is big over there is a major understatement.

�When I was in France, that�s all they did,� she said about her teammates� smoking. �They smoked before the game; they smoked at halftime; they smoked after the game. There�d be 10 cigarettes at dinner. What does that do for you? That�s their lifestyle. That�s how they went about things.�

Overseas, Moore had to endure a lot of what tobacco companies call �passive smoking,� a fancy term for the more familiar phrase, �second-hand smoking.�

�I tried to stay away from the second-hand smoke as much as possible,� the forward recalled, �but when they�re smoking in the shower area and you�re in there� You try and stay away from it and let them know you don�t respect the fact they�re doing it when you�re around. You can�t stop a person from smoking, but they do need to be respectful of people who don�t, and they were willing to do that.�

That�s fortunate, especially since the three most recognizable, not to mention pronounceable, chemicals found in cigarette smoke include arsenic, lead and formaldehyde. Those three toxic substances are just three of the 4,000 known others that make up cigarette smoke.

As to why anyone would even start smoking, Christensen touched on the ultimate peer pressure defense, �Everybody is doing it.� Still other young women take up the habit because it cuts down on the desire to eat or can simply be an activity to just pass some time.

�Smoking is an appetite suppressant,� Christensen said. �My grandmother was 80 lbs. But when I was younger, girls started as a social thing. They�d get hooked. Friends of mine from college would look at it as something they would do just in college. Now they�re three years out of college and they are still smoking. It�s very addictive and people underestimate that. People might say, 'Oh, I can stop whenever I want,� but that�s not necessarily true.�

Mercury guard Anna DeForge offers a different opinion as to why teen females start smoking.

�To deepen their voice,� she says. �That�s a huge thing. People smoke because they think their voices are too high, and it�ll drop their voice a little bit. I just think that�s insecurity. You have to be strong, confident and your self-esteem has to be higher than your friends� next to you. You just have to have a positive outlook on life.�

As a youngster growing up in Australia, Mercury Head Coach Carrie Graf tried smoking with her friends. Reflecting on her days �hiding behind the shed,� Graf realizes that it wasn�t all that it was cracked up to be.

�It tastes really bad and it�s chronic for you,� the head coach said. �As an athlete, it�s not good for your body. It�s proven that it�s not healthy and that it�s not a good thing to do. I can see with the older generation how hard a habit it is to break. For people who take it up today, it�s just not a smart thing to do.

�My dad was a smoker and he gave it up. He was diagnosed with cancer 18 years ago, lymphoma. He gave up smoking that day and hasn�t smoked since. He�s the lone surviving lymphoma patient in Australia. He�s been through chemotherapy. They didn�t know if smoking caused it, but it made you think it had an impact. It was enough for my dad to quit. He hasn�t smoked in that time. If anybody smokes in his house or car he says, 'Put that thing out.� It�s not healthy and it�s a proven killer.�

In addition to heart disease and lung, mouth and esophageal cancer, smoking just got a lot deadlier. U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona released the results of a new study last month, linking smoking to diseases including acute myeloid leukemia, cancers of the cervix, kidney, pancreas and stomach, abdominal aortic aneurysms, cataracts, periodontitis and pneumonia.

Some of the terms may just sound like fancy scientific lingo, but diseases related to tobacco usage claim about 440,000 lives in the U.S. annually. The report also said more than 12 million people have died from smoking-related diseases in the 40 years since the first surgeon general's report on smoking and health was released in 1964.

When it comes to smoking, the league�s No. 1 draft pick Diana Taurasi says that �as an athlete you just can�t do it. There is no way to play at the highest level and do that.� Non-athletes don�t benefit from the habit either. Long before the guard even had thoughts about entering the WNBA, Taurasi lost her grandfather.

�He was a smoker,� Taurasi recalled. �I was little when he died and he was always smoking. He always had cigarettes in his pocket. I�m sure that had a lot to do with it.�

DeForge says she comes from a family who shares her same outlook on not lighting up.

�Nobody in my family has been into it, but I just don�t smoke because it�s not good to me,� she said. �It�s not good for my body or my health. Everything I do is to keep my body healthy. I�m a professional athlete. I can�t allow those things to deter me from my goals.�

And goals are what finally made Christensen give up the habit.

�I stopped in eighth grade when I really got into sports,� the forward said. �Track, volleyball, basketball, it was a year-round thing. My mom smoked for several years and we didn�t know. She hid it from us. My dad never smoked. They were open about the fact smoking was bad. I finally just started listening to my parents. Sports is the one reason why I stopped. It�s not conducive to being an athlete.

�It is addictive and I noticed that right away. But it wasn�t something I did every day. Had I not been playing sports and been busy all the time, I probably would have gotten more addicted to it. It would be a different story for me today.�

For a habit that kills more Americans than AIDS, drugs, homicides, fires and auto accidents combined, smoking is still very popular. It�s one of the few leisure activities that, according to thetruth.com, will kill a third of the people who engage in it. And even though many of these users would like to stop, the truth is they feel they can�t or won't, until they don't have a choice.

�The thing that aggravated me the most was my grandmother quit smoking the minute she got diagnosed,� Christensen said. �She went cold turkey, and she had been smoking since she was 15. I didn�t understand, if she could quit that easily, why didn�t she do it before. Smoking is something I like to speak out on very strongly. A lot of people don�t understand exactly how harmful it is. People also don�t look at how it affects other people in their life and not just themselves.

�There�s so many different ways you can get help to stop smoking. And if your family is important to you, like it was for her, then I would say you have to think about things in a larger sense.�

Smokers looking to break free of their addiction rely on everything from counseling, nicotine patches and 10-step programs to kick the habit. According to ashline.org, writing down the reasons to quit and sticking to them can be a good start. Another helpful tip is to take up activities that ensure you can�t light up, like swimming, jogging or even washing your car.

For Christensen, if getting the word out as to the ills of tobacco use will make one less person pick up the habit, her time as spokeswoman is well spent. She stresses that a smoking habit is not just a user's problem. It can have an even deeper impact when it comes to loved ones.

�It�s just not about you when you smoke," she said. "You are literally affecting everyone in your family, your friends� and not in terms of second-hand smoke. Just in a larger sense. My grandmother was 71 when she passed away. She�s not going to see her great-grandchildren. She�s missing a lot.�

If you are looking to quit smoking or even just thinking about it, contact the Arizona Smokers� Helpline at 1-800-556-6222 for toll-free cessation services. Or log onto www.tepp.org for tips on helping yourself or loved ones drop the habit permanently.