Prevention for Kids

PROTECTING THE LUNGS OF THE YOUNG. Most smokers get hooked on cigarettes before they reach the ripe old age of 18. And they pay for it dearly. The evidence shows that those who start puffing early will be more severely addicted and more likely to develop irreversible and often deadly respiratory problems as they age. The Lung Association is doing everything it can to keep impressionable kids from starting to smoke in the first place. How? By giving them the tools and education they need to live a smoke-free life.

Creating a Tobacco-Free Generation

Research tells us that the longer we can delay tobacco use in a person’s life, the less likely it is they will start smoking. To help ensure that young people make healthy choices about tobacco use, they must receive accurate information about the risks associated with its use as well as the benefits of choosing a tobacco-free life-style.

What is Be Tobacco Free?

The Lung Association – Ontario, in partnership with Mad Science, a leading science enrichment provider, and is bringing a highly interactive demonstration, Be Tobacco Free, to Grade 4 classrooms across Ontario.

This is an educational and entertaining program for large groups of children that graphically shows the health risks of tobacco use. Through these science experiments, children experience, first-hand, the unpleasant and unhealthy aspects of smoking.

The content of the workshop directly aligns with the Ministry of Education’s curriculum guidelines.

What these students see and do

• The impact of second-hand smoke by collecting smoke inside the smoking chamber to see how much smoke is produced from one cigarette
• A simulation of the effects of nicotine on the heart and circulatory system – experiencing what occurs when less oxygen is supplied to the heart and rest of the body
• How sticky black tar residue clogs your lungs, using GIANT arteries as a demonstration.

In Ontario, 13,000 people die each year as a result of tobacco-related illnesses – the number one cause of preventable death and disease.

The importance of tobacco education

We must continue to educate our children on the dangers of tobacco use as it’s a powerful addiction that is very difficult to break. The stronger the impact we can have with children at this age, the less likely they will experiment with and possibly become addicted to tobacco later on. Today’s children have the potential to become a tobacco-free generation.