you speak of the "politicizing of tobacco issues" without once mentioning
the "social context"  within which people smoke, why they smoke, or how they
came to smoke -- people do not smoke in a social vacuum.  the links to
poverty for example?  the moralizing and stigmatizing of smoking?  the
playing field isn't equal when you tell a child "not to run into
traffic"....teaching 1 - 3 year olds "lifestyle correctness" is merely
obscuring the social roots of disease for yet another entire generation. .
good health promotion?  I'd say not.


Robb Travers, Ph.D (c)
Research Associate,
HIV/AIDS Social Research Group
KTH 208, McMaster University,
Hamilton, ON
905 977-7622

Research Affiliate,
HIV Social, Behavioural & Epidemiological Studies Unit,
Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto,
Toronto, ON
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Greaves, Lynn RQHR" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: February 6, 2003 8:13 PM
Subject: [heart-l] Resources for Preschoolers


> 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
> [log in to unmask]
>
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