SACO — Smoking is a difficult habit to quit, and young people are susceptible to advertising by tobacco companies. These were some of the messages given to students at a Kick Butts Day assembly at Thornton Academy Gym Wednesday morning.

On display were diagrams of healthy and unhealthy lungs, as well as a pile of 545 pairs of shoes. The shoes, collected by Kennebunk Portside Rotary Club and students from local schools, represent the number of people in the United States who die every hour from lung cancer, and help show the impacts of smoking, said Megan Rochelo, director of the Coastal Healthy Communities Commission.

Freshman Hattie Simon, who made a presentation of her research to her peers, said that in 2010, the tobacco industry spent about $59 million in Maine to advertise their products to children.

Research has shown that children are three times as likely as adults to start smoking because of advertising, said Simon. She said that about 18 percent of high school students in Maine smoke, and 1,600 youth in Maine become new smokers every year.

“Big tobacco companies know that people wouldn’t buy their products if they told the truth about how dangerous their products are,” she said.

Dr. Richard Kahn, a pulmonologist who cares for patients with lung cancer, emphysema and other respiratory diseases, told students that most of his patients said they began smoking when they were 12 or 13 years old.

Smoking is harder to quit than heroine, alcohol or cocaine, he said.

“It’s the most addicting drug to use,” he said. “ Once you’re addicted, it’s hard to stop.”

In addition to nicotine, cigarettes contain other items such as candle wax, butane and arsenic, said Kahn.

Smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer, and can also lead to other diseases such as emphysema and pancreatic cancer, he said. Second hand smoke can cause lung infections, asthma and other problems, he said.

Kahn urged students not to cave into peer pressure and told them that you don’t need to smoke to be cool.

“If someone offers you a cigarette, you can refuse,” he said.

Mary Cook, York District Tobacco Coordinator with Healthy Maine Partnership, spoke to students on how tobacco companies market their product. She pointed to a Winston cigarette advertisement that featured football players. Most real athletes do not smoke, as it would inhibit their performance, she said, and a lot of models featured in advertisements don’t smoke.

Simon attended a Maine Youth Action Network anti-tobacco summit in 2009. After being awarded a mini-grant, she and three other girls began working on a project to prevent smoking on the beach in Old Orchard Beach, where Simon lives.

The girls surveyed 400 people last year, both tourists and locals, and 88 percent of them said they supported a town ordinance that would prevent smoking on the beach.

The group is working on a draft of a proposed town ordinance in Old Orchard Beach that would prevent smoking on the beach, which it will present to town officials at a later date, she said. Simon asked students to sign up to help her group.

“It would be much cleaner and safer for you to go to that beach if it was smoke free,” said Simon.

There are 7,000 chemicals in second hand smoke, and 70 of them cause cancer, said Simon.

 Although cigarette butts look like paper, they are made from plastic and take “years and years and years” to break down.

“The litter is disgusting,” she said, and it’s also bad for marine life.

Kahn said for information and resources to quit smoking, smokers can call SMMC’s Be Tobacco Free Program at 283-7272.

Other events in York County included a video made by students at Bonny Eagle Middle School, a curriculum unit at the Middle School of the Kennebunks, a peer awareness event at Old Orchard Beach High School and an information table during lunch time at Biddeford High School.

— Staff Writer Liz Gotthelf can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 325 or egotthelf@journaltribune.com.