Annual Kick Butts Day Brings Attention to Tobacco Use and Its Impact

LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 7, 2014) − University of Kentucky students, staff and faculty will have the opportunity to stand out, speak up and seize control over Big Tobacco at UK's fourth annual Kick Butts Day from 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. on Tuesday, April 8, 2014, outside the Rose Street walkway.

The goal of Kick Butts Day is to bring awareness to the issue of tobacco use and how it impacts Kentuckians.

"Nearly 8,000 people die each year in Kentucky due to smoking," said Fadyia Lowe, tobacco treatment specialist at University Health Service. "That's 22 people per day." 

To illustrate the huge number of people who lose their lives to tobacco, there will be a display of white sheets covered with handprints, with each handprint representing five lives lost each year. Some of the handprints will be in black paint to represent the 19 percent of UK students who currently use tobacco.

Two hundred remaining hand prints are needed to represent the almost 1,000 lives lost each year in Kentucky among nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke. Information and resources will be available on how to stop using tobacco or how to help someone else quit. 

The UK Wildcat and cheerleaders will join in for a portion of the event. A photo booth will be set up for students to have their picture made holding a sign that says 'I love our Tobacco-free campus because…In addition, games, including Tobacco-free Jeopardy will be set up and a free T-shirt from UK's Student Heath Advisory Council (SHAC) will be given to students who attempt to answer a Jeopardy question.

There will be plenty of other free giveaways for students including food and free fountain drink coupons from campus dining locations.  Students, faculty, and staff can also learn more about Tobacco-free Take Action!, an effort to increase compliance with UK’s tobacco-free policy. To report violations of UK’s tobacco-free policy, please email ReportTFviolation@uky.edu.

Kick Butts Day is sponsored by University Health Service, the College of Pharmacy Student Health Advisory Council, and the Tobacco-free Campus Initiative Task Force.  For more information on UK’s tobacco-free policy, go to www.uky.edu/Tobaccofree

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Media Contact: Ann Blackford at 859-323-6442 or ann.blackford@uky.edu