By Donna Cope
Smoky cabarets, Humphrey Bogart dragging a cigarette from his lips in “Casablanca” and the song “Smokin’ in the Boys Room” all tell people that smoking is cool.
While the imagery may be romantic, there’s nothing attractive about smoking, which, in addition to causing lung cancer, can lead to head, neck and oral cancer.
Through a new smoking cessation project at UAB, Isabel Scaranci, Ph.D., hopes to improve the health of young black men in Alabama’s poorest rural communities, who often begin smoking in their teens. A preliminary survey in the Black Belt shows that nearly 40 percent of African-American men between 15 and 30 years of age in rural counties smoke. Nationally, the prevalence of smoking among young black men is 20 percent.Scaranci, Dr. William Carroll and Young-Il Kim, Ph.D., were recently awarded a grant through the National Institutes of Health, with the goal of helping young African-American men kick the deadly habit. That mission coincides with Oral, Head and Neck Cancer Awareness Week® April 8-15, led by the Head and Neck Cancer Alliance and supported by the American Academy of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery.
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