News Release             For Immediate Release

Monday March 6, 2006

Take!Action Smoke-Free Ontario Youth Summit

Twenty members of the Grey Bruce Youth Action Alliance joined 300 other young people at the first Smoke-Free Ontario Youth Summit this past weekend in Toronto. A highlight of the three day Take!Action against tobacco conference was a dramatic anti-tobacco demonstration at Mel Lastman Square. Three local participants helped organize the province-wide summit.

“It’s time to take action against tobacco,” says Jason Cranny, Youth Advisor at the Grey Bruce Health Unit. “This generation has a strong voice and demands to be heard.” The Grey Bruce Youth Action Alliance is made up of 20 young people ages 14 to 18 years who are dedicated to the Smoke-Free Ontario movement.

There are 31 Youth Action Alliance groups in 20 public health units across the province. Guided by adult Youth Advisors, members act as peer leaders using grassroots advocacy initiatives to take an anti-tobacco message to their respective communities.

“The youth participating in Take!Action are pioneers of the Smoke-Free Ontario

movement,” says Ontario Minister of Health Promotion, Jim Watson attending the summit. “Through their ideas and tobacco control advocacy the Youth Action Alliance is setting an excellent example, preventing the next generation of young people from taking up smoking.”

The average age a young person starts to smoke is 12 years. Many of the Youth Action Alliance members are personally affected by the tobacco use epidemic among youth.

Attachments:

Photo- Grey Bruce Youth Action Alliance members participate in the human cigarette demonstration at Mel Lastman Square during Take!Action against tobacco summit in Toronto.

For more information:

Jason Cranny

Youth Advisor

Grey Bruce Health Unit

(519) 378-4822