PARK CITY — Break dancing, rap music, street art and colorful graffiti.
These are the tools some Utah teenagers are using to spread a new anti-smoking message to their peers and even adults.
More than 130 youths ages 13 to 18 met Tuesday and Wednesday in Park City for the 2004 "Move Yourself" Phoenix Youth Alliance Summit to learn ways to counter the tobacco industry's marketing campaigns.
The ultimate message is to hit the streets with your own campaign, crafting colorful T-shirts, posters, edgy photography and more to snuff out the industry's effectiveness.
"Hopefully after these events, you guys have become experts and you can see through all the lies," Yes Duffy told the young participants.
Duffy was a star attraction at the forum because of his former role as a cast member of the MTV Road Rules series. For conference organizers, he was a perfect pick because of his grass-roots activism against tobacco use.
"You can fight back," he told participants at a "street marketing" workshop.
The alliance was started four years ago and is overseen by the Utah Department of Health, which also sponsors a variety of programs to help people kick the habit.
One of the original alliance members, Chelsea Lujan, got involved four years ago after seeing how some of her relatives were trapped by their addiction.
"It takes over their lives," said Lujan, a 16-year-old student at Hillcrest High School. "It becomes so important to them, and it is so addictive. They can't seem to stop."
The forum draws on the zeal of young participants to spread these facts to their peers:
Approximately 1,200 Utahns die each year from smoking-related diseases.
More than 7 percent of Utah high school students smoke.
Smoking increases the risk for chronic lung disease, cardiovascular disease and multiple forms of cancer.
Duffy added this grim statistic for the participants to share with friends who may be considering lighting up: Drawing on the tragedy of 9/11, Duffy said that every three days, smoking kills the same number of people as it would take to fill three jumbo passenger jets — like those the terrorists used in the September tragedy of nearly three years ago.
Duffy said that because people don't understand how savvy the industry is and how addictive today's cigarettes are, people continue to mindlessly engage in the habit, he said.
He directed teenagers to check out www.bigtobaccosucks.com, a Web site created by a friend of his. For something a little less edgy and more homegrown, tobacco users can go to www.utahquitnet.com, where they will find help on ending their addiction in a variety of ways, including support from fellow smokers suffering from the same struggle.
E-mail: amyjoi@desnews.com