What Is M.E.S.S.?

A new and exciting campaign to address secondhand smoke, M.E.S.S. (Mothers Eliminating Secondhand Smoke) is being led in partnership with other faith-based organizations/institutions, health and human service organizations, state agencies, and interested citizens. The overarching goal of M.E.S.S. is to ensure the overall well-being of women and children by creating voluntary smoke-free homes and smoke-free vehicles.

The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids reveals the toll of tobacco in South Carolina remains at a high level. It reports statewide, 35% (85,000) of all high school students smoke, and 10,600 kids under age 18 become new daily smokers each year. Approximately 240,000 kids are exposed to secondhand smoke at home, while 21.3 million packs of cigarettes are purchased or smoked by kids each year. It is anticipated that 90,000 kids now under 18 and alike in South Carolina will ultimately die prematurely from smoking.

According to Women and Smoking: a Report of the Surgeon General, smoking is a woman's issue, and that environmental tobacco smoke is a cause of lung cancer among women who have never smoked and coronary heart disease. Second hand smoke exposure affects everyone, but children are especially vulnerable and their exposure is always involuntary. Children exposed to second hand smoke are at an increased risk for medical complications such as developmental lung delays, asthmatic complications, respiratory tract infections and even SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) to name a few. On April 27, 2004, the National Center for Tobacco-Free Kids issued Mother's Day Smoking Data, which indicated South Carolina having 7,000 pregnant smokers, and 1,500 children who have lost their moms due to smoking.