TONE REFLECTS TOBACCO RAVAGE EX-SMOKER MUST SUBSTITUTE MACHINE FOR LARYNX.

Byline: Marci Wormser Staff Writer

ROSAMOND - When Ed Mileham speaks to Antelope Valley teens about the dangers of tobacco, he finds his usually distractible audience transfixed by his words.

It's not that Mileham gives the high school students any information they haven't already heard. It's how he communicates.

A smoker for 27 years, Mileham must speak through an electrolarynx, a handheld mechanical voice box, after his larynx was removed because of cancer 14 years ago.

``If you do not use tobacco, don't start,'' Mileham told Rosamond High School students recently, speaking in a loud, clear but mechanical-sounding voice. ``Don't let anyone convince you that you need to be part of a crowd. Because if you do, you might carry your voice in your pocket, just like I do.''

Although he is now cancer-free, the 66-year-old Lancaster resident must live with the effects of his 1 1/2-packs-a-day habit for the rest of his life.

He began smoking in the military when he was in his 20s and didn't know how dangerous cigarettes are.

It was a sore throat that first alerted Mileham to a problem. He found out it was laryngeal cancer.

Mileham said he chose both surgery and radiation because he had heard of other people with similar problems - including singer Sammy Davis Jr., killed by throat cancer in 1990 - who opted for radiation only. They later succumbed to their cancer.

Mileham considers himself extremely fortunate to be cancer-free after treatment.

But the surgery left him with a permanent opening in his neck through which he breathes, rather than through his mouth and nose.

To speak, he presses the end of his electrolarynx - a tubular, microphonelike device - against his neck and pushes a button.

That causes a vibration in the throat that duplicates the vibration of the vocal cords, according to the Eastern Virginia Medical Center. The result is a voice with an understandable but mechanical tone that does not sound natural.

Mileham was invited to speak to the high school students by Rosamond High senior Ojore Jones, president and founder of his school's American Cancer Society youth club.

Jones said he started the club to gain leadership skills and to pass on to other teens a message about the importance of a healthy lifestyle.

Jones said he asked Mileham to speak so that ``those who are thinking about starting smoking can see what it will lead to.''

To date, five high schools in the Antelope Valley and Acton have Cancer Society youth clubs, said Joella Wilson, the coordinator of the Eastern Sierra Unit of the ACS Youth Board.

Each club must complete a public-service project. Some students have established campus chapters and completed projects to fulfill graduation requirements, Wilson said.

``The whole idea is youth working with youth,'' Wilson said. ``Youth will listen to other youth before they listen to adults.''

Rosamond High junior Mychelle Rife said the speech made her glad that she quit smoking last year. The 16-year-old said she smoked from ages 9 to 15.

Rife thanked Mileham for speaking to the students.

Mileham also warned teens against smokeless tobacco, chewed or dipped. Photos he showed of a teenage track star who died at age 19 from smokeless tobacco hit her and other teens hard, Rife said.

``I felt bad for that guy in the picture,'' she said. ``I think everyone was devastated.''

One teen approached Mileham after the assembly and told him the talk persuaded him to quit smoking.

``If I reach one person in the audience, it's a job well done,'' Mileham said.

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Photo:

Teens listen to the anti-tobacco message of ex-smoker Ed Mileham, right, who speaks with a handheld mechanical voice box after throat cancer.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer