Jump to full article: Kitchener-Waterloo (ONT) Record (ca), 2009-06-05
Author: Johanna Weidner RECORD STAFF
Intro: The 17-year-old joined an antismoking club at St. Mary's, one of seven high schools in the region that received $1,000 for student-led tobacco prevention activities from the province as part of the Smoke-Free Ontario Strategy.
Earlier this week the province announced it was dropping the high school grant program, started in 2005 and run locally by Region of Waterloo Public Health.
Funding was also cut by to the Youth Action Alliance Program, another campaign administered by public health with two full-time supervisors and 14 part-time peer leaders work to discourage teen smoking. Costing $230,000, the program will end in August. . . .
New statistics point to the great need for antismoking efforts aimed at teens. More than one in 10 teens in the region smoke occasionally or daily, according to a 2007 regional survey released this week. And most smokers said they started in their teen years, usually around 15.
A University of Waterloo researcher, who runs a Health Canada-sponsored survey of adolescents, found youth smoking rates have flatlined after a decade-long decline.
Graves is trying to quit, but found her addiction has a strong hold.
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