Sudbury and District Health Unit public health nurse Francine Brunet-Fechner said Sudbury's rate of “current, daily or occasional” smoking is at 25.3 per cent as of 2010, the last time the health unit collected numbers. In comparison, the province is at about 19 per cent, she said.
“We're a little bit higher, but the significance here ... is that we're still at 25 per cent, and there has been no significant change,” she said. “It's good in that it's not getting worse, but we have to continue to implement strategies and efforts to help those who are looking to live without tobacco.”
Canada is celebrating National Non-Smoking Week Jan. 15-21, an event that has been observed for more than 30 years. It is one of the longest-running and most important events in Canada’s ongoing public health education efforts, according to a news release.
Established in 1977 by the Canadian Council for Tobacco Control, the goals for National Non-Smoking Week are:
- to educate Canadians about the dangers of smoking;
- to prevent people who do not smoke from beginning to smoke and becoming addicted to tobacco;
- to help people quit smoking;
- to promote the right of individuals to breathe air unpolluted by tobacco smoke;
- to denormalize the tobacco industry, tobacco industry marketing practices, tobacco products, and tobacco use; and
- to assist in the attainment of a smoke-free society in Canada.
The health unit uses National Non-Smoking Week as a tool to further stress the importance of not taking on the task of quitting alone. It makes available to the public a variety of programs and services to help smokers kick the habit.
A tobacco treatment clinic is one such service, which is free, confidential and provides access to experts trained in cessation treatment.
“These experts help individuals look at a plan on how they want to quit tobacco,” Brunet-Fechner said.
There is also a tobacco-free action line, at 705-522-3433, with services in French and English, as well as Countdown to Quit sessions, where experts provide information further to a plan and includes what to expect when taking the first step toward quitting. These are only a few of the programs accessible through the health unit.
The theme for this year's National Non-Smoking Week is "Breaking up is hard to do", which is quite appropriate, Brunet-Fechner said, because it aims at individuals who are looking at letting go of that tobacco use, but might need some extra encouragement.
“Tobacco is the strongest addiction out there, and all it takes is one cigarette,” she said. “Then the brain identifies it as a need and the person looks to regenerate the sensation that occurs with it,”
Smoking among youth continues to be a significant concern, as well, she said, and the health unit has to continue to offer programming that not only looks at cessation, but also at policies and bylaws to decrease environments that still allow smoking.
For example, as part of the Smoke-free Ontario Act from 2005, cigarette "power walls" have been banned in stores and smoking is now prohibited in enclosed public spaces and workplaces. Furthermore, children are now protected from second-hand smoke in cars.
“We need to continue in our day-to-day lives to ensure there are outdoor environments where there is no smoking, so that there is no model behaviour being demonstrated to children and youth,” Brunet-Fechner said. “We would rather demonstrate to them that it is healthier to live without the use of tobacco.”
Parents need to play an important role in helping to prevent their children from picking up the habit, she said. Parents “have to be straight up and forward if they are smokers that it is not good for them, and they have to make the choice to not light up in the presence of their children.”
Quitting needs to be done in steps that set smokers down a path toward a healthier lifestyle. Recognizing the reasons why a person smokes and why they want to quit are the first steps, she added.
“Smokers need to start thinking like a non-smoker and take small action steps, one thing at at time, to get to the bigger results,” she said. “Something as simple as delaying one cigarette a day is a great start, and then gradually cut down.”
It's also a good idea to track the progress made by writing it down, she said.
Looking forward, the province stated in its press release that smokers will get more help to quit through new and enhanced supports, including increased access to nicotine-replacement therapy and planned expansion of cessation counselling in health-care settings and pharmacies, the province stated.
“Our government is steadfast in our commitment to curb tobacco use and protect people from the effects of second-hand smoke,” Deb Matthews, Minister of Health and Long-Term Care, said in the news release. “During this year's National Non-Smoking Week, I encourage Ontarians who smoke to get help quitting with our provincially funded programs and supports, so together we can be a healthier province.”
The Sudbury and District Health Unit is backing the Canadian Cancer Society's Driven to Quit Challenge, where those who pledge to quit smoking or tobacco use for the month of March are eligible to win their choice of a new Ford Fusion hybrid or Ford Edge, one of two $5,000 dream vacation getaways or one of seven $2,000 cash prizes.
Eligibility criteria and rules are available at www.driventoquit.ca.
For more information about the health unit's tobacco and cessation programs, call 522-3433.
“We are open and eager to help,” Brunet-Fechner said.
Quick Facts:
- The percentage of Ontarians who smoke has declined from 24.5 per cent in 2000 to 18.6 per cent in 2009.- Each year, tobacco claims 13,000 lives in Ontario - equivalent to 36 lives every day.
- Tobacco-related disease costs Ontario's health care system $1.93 billion in direct health care costs.
- Recently, the Superior Court of Justice made a decision which paves the way for Ontario's $50-billion lawsuit against a group of 14 tobacco companies for health-care costs to move forward.
- Close to 62 per cent of adult smokers intend to butt out within the next six months, while 32 per cent intend to quit smoking within 30 days. Forty-nine per cent of Ontario smokers make a serious attempt to quit smoking over the course of a year.
Posted by Arron Pickard
