Diana Yassanye wasn’t born when the first Surgeon General’s report on the health risks of smoking was released five decades ago.
But the Decatur woman knows too well the toll smoking can take on a family.
She lost her dad, Robert Yassanye, to lung cancer in September. A long-time smoker, he was also diagnosed with COPD in 2001.
He picked up his first cigarette when he was 12.
“He grew up in Ohio and back then it wasn’t uncommon for people to smoke or for women to smoke while pregnant,” she said. “He and his brother and two sisters were exposed to second-hand smoke all their lives. It was just a different time.”
But Yassanye, senior adviser, business engagement at The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has a chance to memorialize her father, a sonar engineer, and help others avoid the same heartache.
The CDC recently launched #20Million Memorial,” a social media project to honor the more than 20 million people in the U.S. who have died from smoking and the effects of second-hand smoke since that first Surgeon General’s report.
“I’m lucky he got to meet his granddaughter but he can’t see her grow up,” Yassanye posted on Twitter, using the hashtag #20Million that is now visible on the CDC’s virtual memorial wall. It includes a photo: “In Memory Of My Dad Bob Who Died Three Weeks Ago Due To Smoking #20Million.”
Loved ones of people who have died are invited to post photos, remembrances and messages on social media. Each post on Facebook, Google+, Instagram, Twitter or Vine using the hashtag "#20Million" will become a part of the virtual memorial and be on display at www.CDC.gov/20Million.
“We recognize that 20 million is a very large number for people to really relate to so we wanted to find a way to personalize that number,” said Diane Beistle, chief of the health communications branch in CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health.
The goal was not only to memorialize those who have died, “but to engage the public in a discussion that tobacco is still a problem 50 years later,” she said.
So far, the memorial has reached over a million potential viewers through more than 740 posts on social media.
There’s a post from the Quit Now Indiana honoring a woman named Molly who died of lung cancer but was determined to help others break the habit. Bruce Bryant, president and creative director of Indianapolis-based advertising firm, honors his dad, Leo Donald Bryant, who died from throat cancer when Bruce Bryant was 17.
“Me and my dad; he taught me how to be a winner, a real man,” Bryant posted, including a photo of the two. “Unfortunately, he never got to see my success.”
The CDC hopes the memorial will serve as a reminder of the millions of lives lost as a result of smoking. Health risks include cancer, cardiovascular disease, miscarriage, sudden infant death syndrome and lung disease, according to health officials.
Of the 20 million who died, according to CDC, 2.5 million never picked up the habit but died from heart disease or lung cancer caused by exposure to secondhand smoke.
“If we just continue with business as usual, around 5.6 million children alive today, will die prematurely from smoking ,” said Dr. Tim McAfee, director of the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health. “And that’s obviously a statistic that we don’t want to see happen.”
For her part, Yassanye, never smoked. She and her father talked about the dangers of smoking. When she was smaller, she tried to get him to quit.
“He knew it was wrong but he couldn’t stop, even knowing the ramifications,” she said.
She heard about the wall from a co-worker and immediately thought of her dad.
“This campaign reminds folks that is is more than a nameless, faceless addiction,” she said.
“These are people’s lives.”
