Leave the Pack Behind persuades smokers to butt out
By Natasha Marar
News Editor
February 6, 2008
 University of Windsor’s Leave the Pack Behind (LTPB) team capped off National Non-Smoking Week recently with the successful promotion of its Let’s Make a Deal contest.
Funded by the Government of Ontario and Health Canada’s Tobacco Control Programme, LTPB teams exist at 37 college and university campuses across Canada to promote smoke-free post-secondary institutions.
“It’s a research project through Brock University, and the University of Windsor was one of the pilots for the program, which started in 2000,” said Judi Wilson, health promotion nurse for Student Health Services.
Managed on campus by Student Health Services, LTPB attracted 250 participants for Let’s Make a Deal, which rewards students who do not smoke from Jan. 21 to March 3.
The contest consists of four deals, Quit for Good, aimed at regular smokers, Keep the Count, which asks regular smokers to reduce their smoking by 50 per cent, Party Without the Pack, for those who smoke while drinking alcohol, and Don’t Start and Win, which encourages non-smokers to stay smoke-free. All entrants must also have their progress monitored by a “buddy.”
The prizes include tuition money of $500 for Quit for Good participants, $200 for Keep the Count and Party Without the Pack individuals, and $100 for Don’t Start and Win non-smokers.
“I’m very understanding, I know how hard it is,” sympathized Wilson, a former smoker herself.
Wilson explained that both smokalyzer and cotinine tests are used to ensure that contestants stick to their deals. “[A smokalyzer] is a carbon monoxide test,” said Wilson. “Cotinine is a by-product of nicotine that is excreted in the urine of smokers.”
Monetary prizes are donated by the University’s Office of the President. Additional prizes are provided by the CAW Student Centre Pharmacy, University Players, Shoppers Drug Mart, Pizza Hut, and Nicorette.
Last month, Statistics Canada released results from the first half of 2007 (February to June) of the Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey (CTUMS).
In the last eight years between 1999 and 2007, the CTUMS reports that smoking among Ontario young adults has declined from 34 per cent to 24 per cent.
Wilson attributes the decline in young adult smokers to stronger tobacco legislation, changing social attitudes towards smoking, and the greater restriction of smoking in public places.
The 19 per cent of youth 15-19-years-old revealed that they smoked regularly, while 24 per cent of young adults aged 20-24 are smokers.
Also, consumption of cigarettes has declined slightly from 17.4 per cent in 1999 to 15.3 per cent in 2007. Males, however, continue to smoke five cigarettes more a day than female smokers.
When asked what can be done to discourage people from smoking and helping people quit, Wilson remarked, “I think we really need to enforce not selling tobacco products to young people, and having fewer places where people can smoke. It seems the more difficult it is to smoke the fewer the people that smoke.”
Wilson provided three reasons why young adults are more prone to smoking than teenagers. “It probably has something to do with developmental stages, and rites of passage. Students are on their own and smoking could be a way of coping or getting into a peer group, and students don’t have the same controls as they did at home.”
“When I first came to the University you could smoke at your desk, or in the classroom,” said Wilson of the Ontario legislation that persisted into the 1990s.
“You could buy tobacco on your meal card in the [Vanier] Mini Mart,” added Wilson. “That’s how acceptable smoking was...it almost seems impossible now.”
Evolving tobacco legislation in Canada continues to challenge long-held social norms regarding smoking. The Smoke Free Ontario Act, adopted in 2005, mandated that smoking was prohibited in all enclosed workplaces and public places in by May 31, 2006.
To ensure that minors are not purchasing tobacco, the Act will also enforce a complete ban of the display of tobacco products in Ontario starting on May 31, 2008.
The 2007 CTUMS indicated that 73 per cent of all Canadians believe that smoking should not be allowed in any section of a restaurant—an increase of five per cent from 2006.
Half of Canadians, on the other hand, continue to think that smoking sections should be allowed in some sections of a bar or tavern.
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