I have been following the discussion on educating children about smoking
with keen interest as I am working in the area of tobacco control.
Unfortunately, my email address changed and until today I haven't been able
to post a message.  Now all is clear, so here we go:

Tobacco control is an emerging area of population health that has identified
"best practices"  - those evidence-based strategies that have been shown to
reduce the number of people who smoke and the number of children and youth
who start to smoke.

They include - increased taxation, smoke free public and workplaces, and
banning of advertising and promotion.

Cessation programs exist because everyone should have help if they want to
quit.   But cessation programs focusing on the individual smoker are not the
most effective way to reduce smoking deaths and disease.

Those involved in effective tobacco control, in jurisdictions where death
rates and youth smoking rates decrease, for example British Columbia, have
implemented "best practices".   And they have reaped the rewards in terms of
fewer people smoking their way to an early grave and fewer children becoming
addicted to a product that leads half of its users to premature death.

That being said, there are probably scenarios where health people are
focusing on helping smokers, when to be really effective they should be
implementing best practices.  And that being said, there are probably some
people 'overhelping' low income smokers.

But to suggest that children should not learn about tobacco is to send
children into the world without arming them with the facts about the dangers
that exist.

Telling children the truth about tobacco is not a 'political statement'.  If
I tell children not to run out in traffic, that is not political.

Children are bombarded by messages that smoking is cool and an "adult thing
to do".  Many of these come from the tobacco industry that promotes smoking
through sponsorship, and through advertising such as in tobacco product
displays - also called 'power walls' - which are placed right next to the
candy and other kids' stuff in stores across the country.

Children are rarely told that 90% of adults who smoke became addicted when
they were children and youth.  And then later, when they became adults, they
wished they could quit but found it very difficult because they had become
addicted.

Most parents who smoke wish they had never started and hope to heck their
children never start.

Most educators of young children do not educate in order to offend any
smoking parents.  They are painfully aware that their teaching, although
initially accepted by young children, can later be overridden by tobacco
industry promotion, peer pressure, and experimental behaviour by youth who
have no idea of how addictive tobacco can be.  For example, in one study,
92% of teenagers said they wouldn't be smoking in a year.  A year later, 99%
were still smoking.

Children need help to escape a product that first addicts, and then kills.

The politicizing of tobacco issues is done by the tobacco industry who
fights any tobacco control strategy that has been shown to work  (smoking
bans, bans on advertising and promotion, increased taxation) and supports
any strategy that hasn't been shown to work (ventilation, youth possession
laws).

Industry "front groups" whining about economic losses are common everywhere
even though mountains of scientific studies show there are no economic
losses with smoking bans.

Case in point:
Here in the province of Saskatchewan, Canada, on February 18, Rothmans,
Benson & Hedges Inc will appeal the banning of tobacco product displays in
public places where children have access.  These displays ostensibly for
storage purposes are no more than blatent tobacco advertising.  The ban has
been well accepted by the public in our province.  Our provincial
pharmaceutical association says "Compliance is high.  There have been no
significant problems or failures, economically or otherwise."

The industry's legal challenge was dismissed last year and now they are
using their massive resources to appeal.

Wish us well.

And please also wish the children of our province well.

Lynn Greaves
Public Health Services
Regina Qu'Appelle Health Region
2110 Hamilton St
Regina, SK Canada S4P 2E3
306-766-7903  Fax 306-766-7798
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