Be Free –
Smoke Free
Melissa Moore -
Newfoundland and Labrador Alliance for the Control
of Tobacco
(ACT)
Tobacco-use
a modern epidemic
The Tobacco Epidemic
• Smoking kills 37,000 Canadians every year
• Smoking is the #1 cause of preventable death in
Newfoundland and Labrador:
– 1,000 deaths every year
• 20% of all deaths
• 90% of all preventable deaths
• Half of all smokers will die from their addiction,
losing, on average, 15-20 years of life
Smoking Rates in Newfoundland and
Labrador
28
26
24
23
22
21
21
20
20
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
The Tobacco EpidemicThe Young Smoker
• 21% of youth in grades
5 through 9 have tried
any type of tobacco
product
• The average age for a
Canadian youth to
start smoking is 12
• Much lower in Aboriginal
Communities
• 85% of smokers start
BEFORE age 16
• Girls are more likely to
start smoking
than boys
Second-Hand Smoke
(ETS) and Disease
• 4,700 – 7,000 Canadians, including over 100
Newfoundlanders and Labradorians die each
year from exposure to Environmental Tobacco
Smoke (ETS)
• ETS increases your chance of lung cancer
by 25% and heart disease by 10%. It also
increases risk of leukemia and cancer of
almost every organ and system in the human
body
The Tobacco Epidemic:
Costs
• Cost of 1 package of Cigarettes: $7.09
• Pack-a-day smoker: $2587.85 per year
I’ll quit after university (5 yrs)
$12,939.25
I’ll quit when I have kids (10 yrs)
$25,878.50
I smoked my entire life, never got
around to quitting… (40 yrs)
$103,514.00
The Cost of Smoking in
Newfoundland & Labrador
2003 estimated annual costs:
$79 million in direct health care costs
$139.2 million lost productivity, years of life
& employer absorbed costs.
2007 budget revenue:
$93 million cigarette taxes
Why kids start smoking
• According to the 2005 Youth Smoking
Survey from Health Canada, the two main
reasons kids start to smoke are
– It’s cool (60%)
– Behaviour of friends (57%)
What does Nicotine do?
Takes 7 seconds for 1/4 of the nicotine to
go straight to the brain.
Causes your brain to release a chemical
called Dopamine.
It's Dopamine that gives you a false
sense of well-being, and soon the body
wants more and more Dopamine on a
regular basis. This is the beginning of an
addiction.
80% of young people who try 2 cigarettes
or more go on to battle a life-time of
addiction.
http://www.finalsmoke.com/howitworks.html
Myths about tobacco…
Do these keep young people smoking?
• Smoking will make you thin
– Almost twice as many females than males stated
"weight control" as a perceived reason that youth
start to smoke (15% and 8% respectively).
• Smoking is relaxing
Myths…
• Smoking is an
adult activity
• One cigarette
won’t hurt you
Myths…
• Light cigarettes
are better for you
• It is illegal to buy
cigarettes
Smoking and the community
• Smoking is fast becoming an “old fashioned”
idea
• People are realizing that smoking has no
place in a healthy lifestyle
• Public bans are becoming the norm
• All school grounds and hospital properties
are smoke free
• Currently in NL smoking is banned in ALL
public places including restaurants, bars and
bingo halls
• Some companies have perimeter or property
bans.
The Tobacco Industry
…like no other
• Tobacco is the ONLY legal product sold
that is lethal when used exactly as the
manufacturer intends
• The cigarette is the most effective drug
delivery device on the market
• World revenues from Canadian tobacco
companies total $168 BILLION per year
Truth Revealed
Tobacco Industry
Internal Documents
• Guildford and Minnesota
Depositories set up in
1998
• Results of US lawsuits
• 39 Million pages of
documentation
Truth Revealed
Industry Secret #1: Lie & Deny
The Agreement between
tobacco companies:
– Deny the known health
effects of tobacco and
conceal the known
toxicity of tar, nicotine,
and other chemicals in
their product
The Truth…
“…in the case of carcinogens, smoke
contains not just one, but a galaxy of
them…”
British American Tobacco (Owner of Imperial Tobacco)
“…obviously the amount of evidence
accumulated to indict cigarette smoke
as a health hazard is overwhelming.
The evidence challenging such an
indictment is scant…”
1962 internal industry report
Truth Revealed
Industry Secret #2:
The Tobacco Industry markets
their product to children
The Lie…
“…we do not market to children…”
1994 Statement From the Tobacco Industry
“…we do not, under any
circumstances, want kids to smoke…”
1994 Industry Advertising Campaign
The Truth…
From Industry Marketing Memo Released in Court
The TRUTH…
• The tobacco industry loses close to 500
smokers every day in Canada alone…they need
to replace these smokers who quit or die
• The most promising replacements are young
people…85% of smokers begin before they are
16 years old
• Every day tobacco companies spend over 10
million dollars on advertising to young people
Top Ten Reasons The Tobacco
Industry sucks
10. Big Tobacco is greedy
• In 2001, over 40 billion cigarettes (42,301 billion) were sold in
Canada. They are one of the biggest profit making industries
in the country.
9. Big Tobacco needs YOUth
• Honest!! In a desperate attempt to recover their shrinking
market of youth smokers, tobacco companies have begun to
promote mini-cigars or cigarillos to youth. Cigarillos are often
fruit, candy or alcohol-flavoured, and can be purchased in any
convenience store either as singles in plastic tubes or in packs
of 4-8, at cheaper, more youth friendly prices.
8. Big Tobacco manipulates kids
• Big Tobacco recruits youth by developing product brand
images that show independence, freedom and peer
acceptance. They portray smokers as attractive,
autonomous, accepted and admired, and athletic.
7. Big Tobacco is two-faced
• All across Canada, tobacco companies have launched socalled “prevention” programs that they say are designed to
discourage youth from smoking. Studies have shown that in
some cases, these programs actually reinforce youth’s
natural tendency to rebel and so encourage them
6. Big Tobacco thinks we are stupid
• The tobacco industry has stated that drinking one to two
glasses of whole milk a day is riskier than second-hand
smoke. Wait. What??
5. Big Tobacco uses teen and child movies to promote
cigarettes
• It’s no secret. Tobacco companies work closely with
Hollywood to promote smoking in movies.
4. Big Tobacco is racist
• Here is an interesting example: Tobacco companies have
labeled African Americans less educated; prefer malt liquor;
have problems with their own self-esteem.
3. Big Tobacco uses child labour
• According to the World Health Organization (WHO) child
labour is widespread in all major tobacco producing
countries.
2. Big Tobacco is bad for the environment.
• Tobacco companies often grow tobacco using pesticides and
herbicides on land that has been recently deforested
1. Big Tobacco is watching you
• Although they have stated publicly that they don’t want
minors to smoke, internal industry documents have proven
that they keep an extremely close eye on the youth market
and have developed strategies to encourage youth to
smoke. For example, a Philip Morris research report stated
that "It is important to know as much as possible about
teenage smoking patterns and attitudes. Today's teenager is
tomorrow's potential customer, and the overwhelming
majority of smokers first begin to smoke while still in their
teens."
Why do people continue
to smoke?
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Addiction – Tough to quit!
Something to do with your hands
Stimulation – nicotine stimulates
Don’t know how to quit
Other reasons?
Reasons to Quit
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Health
Stinks, bad breath, yellow
skin
Family/Friends
Too much money!
Peer pressure (fewer
smokers)
Fewer places to smoke
Don’t like it anymore – sick
of it
Others…
So how do I quit?
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Form a plan –
decide on the best
approach for you.
Two ways to quit
1.
2.

All at once
Cutting back
Based on the way
you want to quit
there are a lot of
tools out there to
help you.
Tips/Techniques
The 4D’s – Drink water, deep breathe, delay and do
something different
 Brush your teeth, chew gum
 Eat breakfast first, have snacks for daily cravings
 Where you smoke and who you are with.
 Cut back on coffee, caffeine and anything else that
triggers you to smoke
 Ask a health care provider about patch, gum, pill
 Exercise, eat right, pick up a hobby
 Stay positive! You Can do it!
 Get support form the community
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Programs & Supports
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Patch
 Gum
 Nicotine Inhaler
 Smokers’ Helpline
 Internet Resources
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www.smokershelp.net
www.gohealthy.ca
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Teacher,
 School Counselor,
 Nurse, Doctor,
 Friend/Family
 “Kick the Nic”
Group Program
 Quit for Life
Call the Smokers Helpline
1-800-363-5864
Questions/Comments?