Heather Lisney of The Lung Association of Alberta and NWT

The Lung Association of Alberta and Northwest Territories visited St. Timothy School on Nov. 30 in their ongoing effort to educate youth on the perils of tobacco use.

“It was very well received,” said program specialist – tobacco, Barb Borkent. “The students were very excited, they were surprised by some of the things they learned. There seemed to be an impact where they expressed their desire to share what they had learned with their peers and family.”

The program, the Mini-Blast Tobacco Prevention Workshop, aims to inform students about what is in the contents of tobacco to help make sense of why cigarettes have the health effects that they do.

“We also talked about the reality of some of the pressures that the tobacco industry,” added Borkent, “the tactics that they use to get young people to start using tobacco.”

A somewhat surprising statistic regarding tobacco use among young people is the low percentage who have succumbed to the addictive habit.

“Only 17 per cent of Alberta youth ages 15-19 have experimented or are using tobacco,” informed Borkent. “You’re in the majority if you don’t use tobacco.”

The program also attempted to teach students that tobacco use is far from a normal part of everyday life and that people must avoid temptations such as attractive flavourings in tobacco products.

“Tobacco use is not normal,” said Borkent, who explained that the program tries to edify what is called ‘de-normalization of tobacco.’

Borkent said The Lung Association is open to visiting any school in the province and underscored that St. Timothy’s “is a school committed to supporting their students for making healthy lifestyle choices.”

The program is free of charge to participating schools.

A ‘youth action’ grant is also available for institutions that would like to implement a plan to share knowledge of tobacco with other schools in the community. The Lung Association will donate $500 to schools to carry out their tobacco-action plan.

“They know we need to keep getting that message repeated over and over and over,” reiterated Borkent, “to de-normalize tobacco.”

“Cochrane is a leader,” proclaimed Borkent, saying that the town was one of the first to bring in the no-smoking bylaw.

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