As part of National Non-Smoking Week, I had the opportunity to attend a Students Working Against Tobacco (SWAT) event at the Niverville Collegiate Institute, which focused on encouraging youth to never start smoking or use tobacco products. I was shown the exhibits by Grade 12 NCI student Kianne Prudhomme.
The event did a very good job on showing students the very harsh and visual realities of what smoking can do to your body and provided excellent information on what exactly inside of cigarettes is so harmful. It is truly amazing to see how much effort is put into this event by the students of NCI. There is no better way to get the message out about the harm of smoking than in a peer to peer environment.
For almost forty years Canada has recognized National Non-Smoking Week. Every year, thousands of people across Canada take part in various NNSW activities sponsored by local health groups and large organizations like the Canadian Cancer Society, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, the Canadian Lung Association, and provincial, territorial and federal Ministries of Health.
With the diverse activities and participants across our country, NNSW is one of the most important events in Canada’s ongoing public education efforts on controlling tobacco-use. Some of the overall goals of the week are to: educate Canadians about the dangers of smoking, prevent non-smokers from starting to smoke, help smokers quit, and assist in the attainment of a smoke-free society in Canada.
