National Non-Smoking Week - January 15

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National Non-Smoking Week - January 15 - 21, 2012

January 13, 2012

National Non-Smoking Week (NNSW) 2012 - Breaking up is hard to do

This year the Canadian Council for Tobacco Control sought to highlight the complex relationship Canadians who smoke have with their cigarettes. Most of us have experienced a relationship that we knew was not good for us, but found it difficult to walk away. This is particularly true for the millions of Canadians who smoke - their 'pal' is slowing killing them. Further, their addiction to and use of tobacco may also be doing the same thing to their loved ones.

Tobacco remains the leading preventable cause of disease and death in Canada, killing 37,000 Canadians annually. Direct health care costs from tobacco exceed $4.4 billion per year, and total economic costs are greater than $17 billion per year.1 For every premature death caused by tobacco, there are at least 20 people living with a tobacco-related illness.2

Research continues to show that comprehensive tobacco control programmes change smoking behaviour at the population level and alter social environmental factors that influence smoking. Such local, provincial and national tobacco control programmes are in peril without the renewal of a well-funded Federal Tobacco Control Strategy. The health crisis caused by tobacco products demands the continuation of a strong nation-wide response to prevent and reduce tobacco use and exposure.

This is one relationship that demands regulation
A comprehensive tobacco control strategy should strive to achieve a smoke-free society in Canada by:
* Preventing people who do not smoke from beginning to smoke and becoming addicted to tobacco;
* Helping people quit smoking;
* Promoting the right of individuals to breathe air unpolluted by tobacco smoke;
* Unmasking the tobacco industry and its predatory marketing practices, and denormalizing tobacco products and their use;
* Ensuring the tobacco industry is regulated in a manner consistent with the chemical industry and other hazardous products; and
* Educating Canadians about the dangers of smoking.

A relationship with cigarettes is costly
Five million Canadians smoke. Through tobacco taxation, they contribute billions of dollars annually to federal and provincial coffers. However we spend but a small fraction of that to help them quit this relationship. Further, as a society, we continue to stigmatize people who smoke and to blame them for their addiction conveniently neglecting the fact that tobacco is highly addictive and that most adults in Canada who currently smoke started before the age of 17 - many even before the age of 15.

We must do more to help create and invest in environments that support 'quitters', that protects non-smokers from exposure to secondhand smoke and that ensures our youth never enter into this devastating and costly relationship. Tobacco is a relationship that never has a happy ending.

NNSW - 35 Years Young
NNSW has been observed for 35 years and is one of the longest running and most important events in the CCTC?s ongoing public education efforts regarding the consequences of tobacco use. Its goals 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.

For more information about NNSW please visit nnsw.ca or to learn more about the CCTC and its services please visit cctc.ca

Pour obtenir la version francaise du present communique, veuillez visiter snsf.ca

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Robert Walsh
Executive Director
613 567-3050

1 Canadian Centre for Substance Abuse (2006), The Costs of Substance Abuse in Canada 2002.
2 J Mackay and M Erikson, The Tobacco Atlas, 2002.

Semaine nationale sans fumï¿½e (SNSF) 2012
Dur, dur de rompre mais il faut mettre fin - cette relation malsaine ï¿½

Cette annee, le CCCT veut mettre l'accent sur la complexite de la relation qui existe entre les Canadiens qui fument et leurs cigarettes. La plupart d'entre nous avons vï¿½cu une relation que nous savions malsaine pour nous, mais qui etait nï¿½anmoins difficile a quitter. Cette situation est particulierement vraie pour les millions de Canadiens qui fument leur complice les tue petit feu. De plus, il est bien possible que leur usage du tabac et leur dependance aient le meme effet sur leurs proches.

Le tabagisme demeure la principale cause ï¿½vitable de maladie et de dï¿½cï¿½s au Canada : il tue annuellement 37 000 Canadiens. Les coï¿½ts directs de soins de santï¿½ dï¿½coulant du tabagisme dï¿½passent les 4,4 milliards de dollars par annï¿½e, les coï¿½ts ï¿½conomiques totaux sont supï¿½rieurs ï¿½ 17 milliards de dollars par annï¿½e.1 Pour chaque dï¿½cï¿½s prï¿½maturï¿½ causï¿½ par le tabac, au moins 20 personnes vivent avec une maladie liï¿½e au tabac.2

La recherche continue ï¿½ indiquer que les programmes de lutte contre le tabagisme complets changent le comportement en matiï¿½re d?usage du tabac au niveau de la population et modifient les facteurs du milieu social qui exercent une influence sur le tabagisme. ï¿½ l?ï¿½chelle locale, provinciale et nationale, ces programmes de lutte contre le tabagisme sont menacï¿½s par le non-renouvellement d?une stratï¿½gie fï¿½dï¿½rale de lutte contre le tabagisme adï¿½quatement financï¿½e. La crise au niveau de la santï¿½ causï¿½e par les produits du tabac exige la continuation d?une puissante intervention nationale pour prï¿½venir et rï¿½duire le tabagisme et l?exposition au tabac.

Visitez snsf.ca pour le reste de ce communique

For more information contact:
Jocelyne Koepke
Operations Manager
Canadian Council for Tobacco Control
Phone: 613 567-3050
Email: jkoepke@cctc.ca
Website: nnsw.ca

Phone: 6134215006
Email: jmkoepke1@gmail.com

Phone: 6134215006
Email: jmkoepke1@gmail.com

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