News Feature                             For Immediate Release

                                                                                                                      March 5, 2007

Who Loves a Good Chew!

-Media campaign targets high schools students with message about smokeless tobacco

High school students represent a new generation of tobacco users – only now thanks to the tobacco industry they are addicted to smokeless tobacco.

“Smokeless tobacco has the potential to explode thanks to a push by the tobacco industry to offset sales losses as more and more people stop smoking cigarettes,” says Jason Cranny, Youth Advisor with the Grey Bruce Health Unit’s Tobacco Control Team. “The industry is trying to entice youth to try their ‘cool brands’ of smokeless tobacco products like chew, spit, dip and plug by making them in flavours such as green apple, cherry, berry, peach and vanilla.”

“But what they don’t promote is the fact that these products are definitely not harmless. They contain more than 3,000 chemicals, including at least 28 that cause cancers,” Jason added. “Along with this, those who use chew tobacco may experience stained teeth, gum disease and drooling in the very short-term – not a very attractive picture.”

Statistics on the use of chew and other smokeless products among our youth is limited at present. The 2004-2005 Canadian Youth Smoking Survey of Grade 5 to 9 student’s shows two per cent have used chew tobacco. Among youth 15-19, surveys conducted by Not To Kids!, a coalition of 27 public health units, identified among youth who smoke cigarettes use of chew tobacco grew from 1.7 per cent in 2003 to 11.6 per cent in 2005.

To counter the alarming increase, Not To Kids! is fighting back with a mass media campaign, LostJaw! rolling out in high schools and other youth community settings across Ontario. The campaign will increase awareness among teens 13 to 18 of the health hazards of smokeless tobacco, its addictive nature, and the marketing that is underway to hook them early and for life. 

The campaign, funded by Health Canada, includes a graphic poster depicting the disfiguring oral cancer risk associated with using smokeless tobacco. An educational insert has also been developed titled, Who loves a good Chew?, which will be included in free circulation school magazines.

An important component of the campaign is a new website www.lostjaw.ca  being launched to give youth a site to find the information they need to make healthy informed choices about smokeless tobacco.

Grey Bruce Health Unit – is a partner in the Not To Kids! Coalition, created to keep kids smoke free.  For more information about Not To Kids! visit the website www.ntk.ca.

Attachments: Backgrounder on Smokeless Tobacco

For more information:

Jason Cranny

Tobacco Control Team, Youth Advisor

Grey Bruce Health Unit

519-376-9420 or 1-800-263-3456 ext. 471