Saskatchewan -
In the fall, Saskatchewan students in grades 6 to 12 viewed and voted on anti-tobacco television ads. Sask Health selects the best international ads to promote classroom discussion about students' attitudes towards tobacco use while demonstrating the harm it causes.
Students vote for the ad that would be most likely to prevent them from trying tobacco; or if they are smoking, inspire them to quit. Two hundred and fifty seven schools in Saskatchewan participated in this year's View and Vote. Oxbow Prairie Heights was not a participant.
View and Vote is a biannual youth initiative, first offered to schools across the province in 2007. The program is a key element of the provincial tobacco reduction strategy to encourage healthy choices around tobacco use, eliminate environmental tobacco smoke, prevent young people from accessing tobacco products, and encourage and assist tobacco users to quit or cut back.
Health Minister Don McMorris called the project "an innovative way of reaching large numbers of young people and educating them about the addictive nature of tobacco and the effects of smoking. Studies show that if young people remain tobacco-free until they become adults, they are less likely to start using tobacco in the future."
Over 3,000 students rated the Australian ad "Mouth Cancer" as most effective. It will be aired on Saskatchewan television stations during National Non-Smoking Week starting January 17. It shows a girl with badly deformed teeth and mouth. "Smoking causes cancer" she says and mentions radiation and chemotherapy. "Quitting is hard," she concludes, but "not quitting is harder!"
