Final tobacco-free lobbying effort a success
NORTHUBMERLAND — A youth action alliance group made up of local high school students has gone out with a bang after members concluded their final lobbying efforts against the sale of flavoured tobacco products.
‘INCITE: The Revolution Against Big Tobacco’ hosted the ‘What’s in the Egg’ campaign to raise awareness of how the tobacco industry uses flavoured tobacco products to target youth, before being disbanded due to a lack of funding.
Anne-Marie Cyr, manager of chronic disease prevention (tobacco and cancer) with the Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit, said the focus of the group was to highlight to other youth how the tobacco industry gets people addicted to their products at a young age.
“They use flavours such as cotton candy, cherry, and vanilla to target youth,” Ms. Cyr said.
The What’s in the Egg campaign also strived to enhance peoples knowledge of Bill C-32, a proposed act that would make it illegal to put flavour in tobacco products. Throughout the spring campaign, eggs with slips of paper inside them were hidden around Cobourg, and people were asked to sign them to show support for INCITE’s lobby against the retail of flavoured tobacco products.
“We gathered over 200 names who are in support for stronger legislation against tobacco,” said Ms. Cyr.
Aside from the campaign, INCITE has taken part in many other activities to help educate youth on tobacco, including its ‘Tobacco Free Sport and Tobacco Free Outdoor Space’ campaign. When kids go to play soccer, parents shouldn’t be on the sidelines smoking, Ms. Cyr said.
“In addition, parents should not be able to smoke around public playgrounds.”
To enforce this, INCITE sponsored a minor soccer team in Cobourg, and the team pledged to be tobacco free. Peer leaders of INCITE have also worked hard to increase the visibility of tobacco-related issues by running school events, including mural contests and sports tournaments.
What’s more, Ms. Cyr said she is pleased with the new legislation in Ontario which makes it illegal to smoke in a car with a minor. The Ontario Health unit, including INCITE, had lobbied for that kind of legislation for a long time and are happy with the results.
“It is a strong step forward, and over 85 per cent of people in the Pine Ridge area supported the law. Other than a few isolated situations, most people are on board with it.”
If you are caught lighting up in a motorized vehicle with a person under the age of 16, you will be fined $250.
With the demise of the INCITE group due to a lack of funding, Ms. Cyr said the government is currently brainstorming other ideas to fight tobacco-related issues, and in the future the Ontario Ministry of Health may attempt some kind of youth engagement strategy.
“As a health unit, we were very proud of the INCITE peer leaders – having youth work with us made us able to enrich the programming provided to the community and overall it made a huge difference.”
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