When you have calculated the amount you have or will save, think about what you could use that money for instead or find something to reward yourself with. Suggestion: use this money to save up in an account for a vacation.
When my grandfather quit smoking he called his account “Smoky the Bear” and saved up for a color TV since those were new at that time.

http://smokershelpline.ca/ Create an account for help and information from the Canadian Cancer Society or call 1 877 513-5333 to connect to the helpline.

LINK TO THE CALCULATOR:

http://www.cancer.ca/files/cw/calculator/cw_popup.html or http://www.cancer.ca/British%20Columbia-Yukon/Prevention/Quit%20smoking.aspx?sc_lang=en and click on the Cost of Smoking Calculator at the bottom of the page.

Did you know that improvements in your health start almost right away after you quit smoking? As soon as you stop smoking your body starts to cleanse itself of the tobacco poisons. These are some of the improvements you will experience:

  Oxygen levels in your blood increase and carbon monoxide levels drop within 8 hours.

  Your sense of smell and taste begin to improve after 2 days.

  You’ll find it easier to breathe within 2 weeks to 3 months because your lungs are working better.

  Coughing, sinus congestion, tiredness and shortness of breath improve within 6 months.

  Your risk of a smoking-related heart attack is reduced by half after 1 year.

http://www.cancer.ca/British%20Columbia-Yukon/Prevention/Quit%20smoking/Why%20should%20I%20quit.aspx?sc_lang=en&r=1

Here is a great site I came across from Australia that shows the health affects of smoking on all areas of the body. Check it out and let me know what aspects you were unaware of and what surprised you. http://www.quitnow.gov.au/internet/quitnow/publishing.nsf/Content/damage-lp

Charlotte

While surfing the Internet recently I came across this CBC News article. The article, for those interested in the history of tobacco regulation and government in Canada, is very interesting. If you scroll all the way to the end of article, you’ll notice that the first regulation of tobacco started way back in 1908- when it became illegal to sell tobacco to those under the age of 16. As many now know, here in Canada, the legal age ranges between 18 and 19- depending on the province/territory. Sadly though, the next Act wasn’t passed again until 1988- THAT’S 80 YEARS before we really started to realize the dangers of smoking! The Acts that were passed, actually laid the groundwork for many of the laws and regulations that Canadians currently know. For example, tobacco sales were only allowed to individuals 18 years and older, tobacco advertising took a big hit, and companies had to put the first set of warning messages on their packages. Fast forward to 2010 when flavored cigarettes and cigars were becoming increasingly popular among youth and young adults. The Canadian government decided to ban both flavored cigarettes and cigarillos from sale.

What do you think about the progression of these tobacco laws?  What do you think will be the next laws instated? Let us know in the comments- just click on the blog title!

Article:  http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2011/07/29/f-smoking-laws-timeline.html

Picture from here: http://www.cigarettesflavours.com/cigarettes-flavors/72-caught-for-smoking-in-public-places/

Natalie

Tweet me: @nathennessey

Thought I’d post a little something my friend Brooke sent me a little while back.  A lot of them were featured in a previous post, but some are new to me! Which are your favourite?

http://thedesigninspiration.com/articles/top-45-creative-anti-smoking-advertisements/

We have just received word from Dr. Baskerville and his team that the application is almost ready to launch! And that the name chosen by the YAC/YLT, was the name chosen by participants in an online survey. The “CrushtheCrave” cessation application is in the pre-launch stage and has been set up with a Facebook page and an online home page. The links are as follows:

www.facebook.com/crushthecrave

www.crushthecrave.ca

Check it out guys and gals, the application is going through some final testing! Find out more details through these links and become one of the test subjects. Check it out sooner rather than later, as you may have a chance to win some cool prizes.

Stay tuned!

Nicholas Whelan

This morning we had the youth-oriented session which presented our plans of action from the pre-conference. I had the privilege of presenting my group’s project, and it went really well!  There was some lively conversation that followed regarding the involvement of youth in tobacco control.  We then made our way to the closing ceremonies where the declaration for the next 3 years was announced, and where they announced the location of the next conference… ABU DHABI, in the United Arab Emirates! Congratulation to them!

Next, I had the opportunity to go on the Singapore Flyer, and visit Sentosa Island on my very last day!  What I am most anxious to talk to you about, though is what I saw while wandering through what they refer to as the Arab district here in Singapore.  I had heard that Hookah was a big problem here, but what I witnessed was far beyond my previous assumptions.  Quite literally at every table, at every shop, on every street in that district there was a hookah (aka water-pipe, shisha) set there for the table to share.  There were people sitting at tables and others lounged on carpets outside of cafés.  They were people from all walks of life – young, old, Singaporean, tourist, Arab, hipster and everything in between.  Several even had their children, mostly under the age of 8, sitting right next to them as they shared hookah with their friends and family.  One man even had his sleeping baby in his arms as he smoking.  I was flabbergasted.  I would have taken photos, but I was too shocked to think of it.  Did you know that in just one 45-minute session of shisha you’re subjecting your body to as much smoke as you would if you were to smoke 100 or more cigarettes?  Just something to think about.

I really hope you’ve enjoyed these posts this week, and I may update you on any particular findings while in Hong Kong!

All the best,
Kat ♥

p.s. For more information on Shisha, you can visit http://breathe.sg/shisha/

One of the less busy side-streets.

Graffiti in the Arab district - very cool!

You must all be sick of hearing just from me, but I’m nearing the end of my journey, so bear with me!  Tomorrow’s the last day of the conference; it’s gone by so fast!  I’ve been telling you all the fascinating tobacco-related things I’ve been learning, but for this post I’m just going to share with you some of the exciting Singaporean stuff I did today.  Let me just first start by saying that Singapore has a lot of food courts and a lot of malls.  Everywhere you turn there is either a food court or mall, or both, or several of both.  Of course by food court I don’t mean the typical food court of North America; a food court is usually owned by one company, and several “station” type places serve a variety of foods (e.i. Japanese sushi, Rice & chicken, Indian, etc.)  The centre where the conference is being held has a really great food court (and a mall attached to it, coincidentally).  At one of the Indian places they have these really great and super cheap doughy bread-like things called Prata.  You can get it with different things cooked inside, like egg, banana or onions.  I had my first one today, and I’m so sad I didn’t try it earlier.  Next great thing about today: I went to the night safari!!  It was SO cool! I’ve added a couple pictures so you can get the idea.  What a neat place it was.  In the touristy-shop area, there was a place that offered fish pedicures.  For those of you who don’t know what that is, basically there is a large tank of small fish who, when you put your feet in, eat the dead flesh. So obviously I had to try it.

Vous êtes probablement tanné de lire des articles de moi, mais demain c’est la dernière journée de la conférence, donc endurez-moi pour juste un petit peu plus longtemps!  Puisque je vous ai conté tellement de choses relié au tabac cette semaine, et beaucoup moins à propos de la culture ici, j’ai choisi de seulement vous conter des histoires de ma journée en termes de culture.  J’ai besoin de vous expliquer une chose qui est très commun ici : il y a beaucoup de Food courts (ou bien des aires de restauration, si vous préférez), et beaucoup de centres d’achats.  A chaque coin si tu tournes to peux voir un food court ou un centre d’achat, ou les deux, ou plusieurs.  En tout cas, le centre ou l’on a notre conférence a un superbe food court, avec une petit place Indienne.  Ils vendent des choses appelé Prata, qui est comme un pain que tu peux faire cuire avec différents ingrédients dans le centre.  Aujourd’hui j’ai essayé celui avec l’œuf, et j’en suis tomber amoureuse.  La meilleure partie? C’est tellement CHEAP!   Ensuite, ce soir je suis allé a un safari de soirée, ou j’ai eu la chance de voir toutes sortes d’animaux.  Le zoo était tellement cool – et ils avaient même une place ou tu pouvais recevoir une pédicurie de poisson.  Pour ceux qui ne le savent pas déjà, c’est le processus ou des petits poissons mangent les cellules de peau mortes.  Évidemment j’avais besoin de l’essayer.

Bonne nuit!!

Kat ♥

Many late nights writing these blog posts + the incredible heat & humidity + a very busy day = I’m pretty worn out.  I’m going to try to keep this post short for today :)   I know I’ve been saying this all week – but what a GREAT day!  I went to three amazing sessions.  The first was on the various forms of smokeless tobacco around the world and their impacts on various societies.  For those of you who may have not been aware – smokeless tobacco is no less dangerous for your health, and can even bring higher chances of developing disgusting oral cancer (like this).  The second session I attended was a general review of whether or not tobacco control centred on youth has been effective, and a discussion on what more can be done.  It’s a fairly simple concept really: if a young people never start smoking or using tobacco products in the first place, then eventually the problem will be eliminated. So how do we make that happen?  There was mention of the importance of tapping into youth’s morals and interests and ensuring that campaigns address these, but that more importantly something other than tobacco addresses these.

What do you think would be the best way to prevent kids from ever picking up tobacco? What stopped you; or oppositely, what would have stopped you?

Finally, the last session I attended was one of the importance of using social media in tobacco control.  It was my favourite session of the day, which was a tough category to beat out because I really enjoyed the first two!  The panellists discussed how incredible it is that in today’s day and age messages are so easily spread out through the internet, by means of social media like Facebook and Twitter (btw – have you followed us yet? @bettertobreathe – get on it!).  I know I learned a lot from this session, but I know I can still learn more from you. So tell me…

What kind of things do you look for on the internet? What do you spend most of your time doing? What makes you want to click the “comment”, “like”, “retweet”, and “share” buttons?

Well, so much for short and sweet… Goodnight!

Kat ♥

____________________________________________________________________________________

Bonjour!!

Plusieurs soirées tard afin d’écrire des articles sur le blog + la chaleur et humidité incroyable + une journée remplie = épuisée. Pour cette raison, je vais essayer de garder cette article courte.  Je sais que j’ai bien dit ça souvent cette semaine, mais quelle journée fantastique!!! J’ai été à trois sessions.  La première était sur le tabac sans fumée, et ses impactes sur le monde.  Pour ceux qui ne le savent pas déjà, le tabac en toutes formes, même quand tu ne le fumes pas, est térriblement nuisant à ta santé.  Tes chances d’avoir le cancer oral sont encore plus grand quand t’utilises le tabac sans fumée, et les résultats sont dégueux.  La deuxième session était une analyse des succès des mouvements de contrôle sur le tabac dirigé vers les jeunes.  Les contribuants ont mentionnés l’importance de reconnaitre les valeurs et intérêts des jeunes.  Il faut bâtir des programmes qui font liens à ceux-ci, mais que plus important, les jeunes ont accès à autre choses apart du tabac pour satisfaire à ces besoins.

Qu’est-ce que tu penses fait arrêter les jeunes du commencer à utiliser les produits de tabac?  Plus pertinent même: qu’est-ce qui t’a arrêté d’utiliser des produits de tabac; ou l’opposé, qu’est-ce qui aurait pu t’arrêter?

Finalement, ma dernière session était sur l’importance d’utiliser des médias social, comme Facebook et Twitter (en passant, tu nous suis? @bettertobreathe) C’était ma session préférée de la journée, ce qui dit beaucoup car je les ai tous adoré. Je sais que j’ai encore beaucoup appris à ce sujet, mais que vous pouvez m’en apprendre davantage. Donc, dites-moi…

Qu’est-ce que tu aimes voir à l’internet? Sur quels sites est-ce-que tu passes la majorité de ton temps?  Qu’est ce qui te fait vouloir cliquer les boutons ‘commenter’, ‘j’aime’, ‘retweeter’ ou ‘partager’?

Bon… bonne chance c’était juste une p’tite article.

Bonne nuit! Kat ♥

Beautiful courtyard of the Chijmes

Beautiful performance at the Bloomberg Awards

More great information to share with you! Today I attended a fascinating session on Mass Media and Tobacco, where several experts in the field shared some of the progress being made in the film sector, and another spoke of a really great initiative happening her in Singapore.  I learned today that in the 2012 the US Surgeon General declared: “The evidence is sufficient to conclude that there is a causal relationship between depictions of smoking in the movies and the initiation of smoking among young people.”  This is great for activists working towards tobacco-free movies.  India recently made monumental steps forward in making movies smoke-free.  (You can read more about that here.)

Plusieurs autres ressources fantastiques qui ressortent d’aujourd’hui!  J’ai été à une session sur les Média et le tabac, avec des experts qui ont présentés sur le sujet du tabac dans les films, ainsi que d’un programme de cessation qui se passe à Singapour.  Le chirurgien-général des États-unis a récemment déclaré que la présence du tabac dans les films a contribué aux niveaux de fumage chez les jeunes.  L’Inde vient de faire dans grands changements qui leur amèneront un pas vers des films complètement sans fumée.  Felicitations Inde! (Vous pouvez vous en renseigner davantage ici. – Anglais seulement.)

Vernon Vasu

Reppin' in Singapore

Canada Booth!

I also had the opportunity to learn more about two unique and successful campaigns running here in Singapore, one being a cessation program called “I Quit”, and the other being a global youth movement called “Live It Up Without Lighting Up!”  I won’t go too far into detail about them today, but check out the following links, get informed, and I will write another post in the near future to give you a better idea what these two programs do.

J’ai aussi eu l’opportunité d’apprendre davantage à propos de deux programmes qui se font faire ici à Singapour et qui démontrent beaucoup de succès.  Le premier est un programme de cessation, qui s’appelle “I Quit”, qui se traduit à “J’ai lâché”.  Le deuxième est un mouvement global pour jeunes qui s’appelle “Live It Up Without Lighting Up!”, qui se traduit de façon général à “Vivez sans allumer!”  Tous les deux sont des programmes fameux sur lesquels je vais en écrire davantage un autre temps, mais pour ce soir (ou après-midi!) vous pouvez vous en informer avec les liens suivant (en Anglais seulement).

• I Quit Club
• Live It Up Without Lighting Up + Twitter (@breathesg)

Youth Delegates having a great time at the Live It Up Without Lighting Up launch!

Live It Up Without Lighting Up launch night opening number

Dance Group "Funky 3" competing at the Live It Up Without Lighting Up dance competition!

Live It Up Without Lighting Up closing dance number

Live It Up Without Lighting Up closing dance number

Gooooodnight! Boooonnnnneeee Nuit!

Kat ♥

What a very exciting day I’ve had! We wrapped up the youth pre-conference, and kicked off the main conference with the opening ceremony!  It was a busy and very productive day of action planning and networking. I had the opportunity to work closely with my fellow delegates from North & South America, as well as Europe, to create an action plan for how we will all mark May 31st, 2012 (World No Tobacco Day) all together.  Stay tuned for more on that!  The opening ceremonies were filled with cultural performances and graced by the presence of many leading figures in the world of tobacco control, including Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization.  You can read more about her here: http://www.who.int/dg/chan/en/index.html  What inspiring words she spoke!

Quelle journée excitant!  Nous avons complèté la pré-conférence pour jeunes, et ensuite nous avons célébré le commencement de la conférence général avec la cérémonie d’ouverture.  C’était une journée très occupée, mais aussi très productive.  J’ai eu la chance de travailler de près avec mes collègues de l’Amérique du Nord et du Sud, ainsi que de l’Europe afin de planifier ce que nous allons faire afin de marquer la Journée Mondiale Sans Tabac, ce qui est le 31 mai, 2012.  Restez à l’écoute pour autres renseignements plus tard!  La cérémonie d’ouverture avait des présentations culturelles et nous a amené plusieurs leaders dans le monde du tabac, incluant Dr. Margaret Chan, la Directrice-Générale de l’Organisation Mondiale de la Santé.  Tu peux te renseigner à propos d’elle encore plus ici: http://www.who.int/dg/chan/fr/index.html  Quels mots inspirants qu’elle nous a offert!

I’ll leave you with this wonderful little quote that the Southern Asia group came up with today: It’s time to “sensitize the masses” to the harmful effects of tobacco.

Je vais te quitter avec un concept qui nous a été présenté aujourd’hui par le groupe du Sud de l’Asie:  C’est maintenant le temps de sensibiliser les masses gens sur les effects nuisible du tabac.

Goodnight/Bonne nuit!

Kat ♥