Why should I order Lungs Are For Life?
Adolescence is the usual starting time for smokers and almost all adult smokers began smoking before they could legally buy cigarettes. It is vital to reach these young people in order to help them develop the skills that they will need to become and/or stay smoke-free all their lives. The Lungs Are For Life program is designed to help students develop the skills they will need to prevent them from smoking or using other harmful drugs such as cannabis and alcohol. Reaching young people before their first cigarette is one of the goals of the Lungs Are For Life program.
The completely revised Lungs Are For Life program provides students in Kindergarten to Grade 12 with information on health and social consequences and attempts to motivate students to resist pressures to use substances. In addition, this program helps students:
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recognize and refute tobacco promotion messages from the media, adults, and peers.
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develop problem-solving and decision-making skills.
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develop refusal skills through role playing.
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affirm and make a declaration to not start or quit smoking.
This program has been designed to meet Curriculum expectation. Teachers and health professionals have designed the revised teaching modules. Each grade module contains what you will need to implement a successful prevention program:
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six or seven easy-to-use lesson or activity outlines, each with an array of teaching activities, classroom resources, and black-line masters.
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assessment and evaluation tools.
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a useful information section listing community resources, relevant web sites, videos, and a comprehensive reference listing.
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materials and activities involving parents.
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lessons that are integrated into other subject areas
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Can you provide an overview of Lungs Are For Life?
The Lung Association's Lungs Are For Life (LAFL) program has been a highly used and successful program addressing respiratory health and smoking prevention since its development in 1984. Revised in 1993, it has been rated as one of the top three smoking prevention programs in the country (Health Canada 1994, School Smoking Prevention Programs: A National Survey).
Since the previous program revision in 1993, a number of developments have identified a need for Lungs Are For Life to be updated. In the 1998/99 school year, the Province of Ontario released the new elementary Health and Physical Education (H&PE) Curriculum, and the secondary H&PE curriculum for Grades 9 and 10, complete with a new set of specific learning expectations. Also in 1998, Ontario's Ministry of Health, Public Health Branch, released new Mandatory Programs and Services Guidelines for Boards of Health, that included a requirement to work directly with schools and school boards on chronic disease prevention issues. Other factors that prompted the revision include trends related to increased teacher and student use of the internet for educational purposes, and the need for a student-directed prevention and cessation program for high school students.
The Ontario Lung Association first teamed up with Ophea in 1999 to revise the English and French modules for Grades 4 to 8 with funding from the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care under the Ontario Tobacco Strategy. Since then they have also revised the secondary program and the Kindergarten to Grade 3 program. A writing team of educators and health professionals took the best of the LAFL program and enhanced it with additional effective and successful strategies from other programs that have helped prevent young people from using tobacco. The lessons are developed to meet expectations in the Ontario Curriculum, as well as Ontario's public health guidelines. To ensure its success with teachers and students, the program was widely field-tested in classrooms across the province.
Ophea and The Lung Association have committed to working together to deliver the Lungs Are For Life series with continued funding from the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. Public health professionals trained as Master Trainers continue to deliver workshops to teachers to further promote the resources. In addition, plans are underway to create a supplementary website for teachers, students, and parents.
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What do the lessons look like within the Lungs Are For Life program?
Check out the following sample pages from Lungs Are For Life for a "taste" of what you'll get when you order.
Download pages samples
Sample Activities
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Where can I find support for the implementation of Lungs Are For Life?
Lungs Are For Life Master Trainers are trained public health unit representatives that work with schools in their region to provide support to educators and increase awareness and use of the Lungs Are For Life resource.
Through the support received fromOphea’sCurriculum and School Based Health and Resource Centreand The Lung Association, Lungs Are For Life Master Trainers are focused on:
· Helping communities and schools address smoking prevention and respiratory health through the Lungs Are For Life program that has been developed for Ontario teachers and students from Kindergarten to grade 12.
· Advocate and enhance health promotion practices with relation to addressing the needs of students and teachers to learn and understand smoking prevention and respiratory health.
· Developing and disseminating appropriate resources to assist educators, parents and community partners to help young people make healthy lifestyle decisions and assist educators to meet expectations in the Ontario Curriculum.
What do teachers say about Lungs Are For Life?
Here's what teachers who have used Lungs Are For Life have to say about it…
- It met expectations, was easy to use, the children and I enjoyed it.
- It covers the health curriculum quickly and clearly for a unit that often gets forgotten.
- I found the material easy to follow. I could plan my lessons very easily.
- This is a fantastic unit! The students are responding with a great deal of enthusiasm and interest.
- Information was applicable to students and addressed real life situations.
- Students had the opportunity to role play and reflect on their own decision-making process and consequences.
- The program sparked lots of good discussion regarding smoking and the choices we make.
- I loved the fact that there were ready-made rubrics.
- Excellent hands-on activities for students.
- Really the best material I've seen in a long time.
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Where can I learn more about tobacco and substance abuse prevention?
Contact the following community organizations for more information on tobacco and substance abuse prevention:
The Lung Association
Ontario Provincial Office
573 King Street East, Suite 201
Toronto, ON M5A 4L3
Information Line: 1-800-972-2636
Phone:(416) 864-9911
Fax:(416) 864-9916
Website: www.on.lung.ca
Canadian Cancer Society - Ontario Division
Website: www.cancer.ca
Please consult your local listing for a CCS office in your community.
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
33 Russell Street
Toronto, ON M5S 2S1
Phone 1-800-463-6273
Website: www.camh.net
Please consult your local listing for a CAMH office in your community.
The Council on Drug Abuse
174 Bedford Rd., Suite 200
Toronto, ON M5R 2K9
Phone: (416) 763-1491
Website: drugabuse.ca
Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario
Website: www.heartandstroke.on.ca
Please consult your local listing for a HSFO office in your community.
Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care
80 Grosvenor St., Hepburn Block, 10th Floor
Toronto, ON M7A 2C4
Phone: 1-800-268-1153
Fax: (416) 327-4327
Website: www.health.gov.on.ca
National Clearinghouse on Tobacco and Health
75 Albert St. Suite 508
Ottawa, ON K1P 5G7
Phone: 1-800-267-5234
Fax: (613) 567-3050
Website: www.ncth.ca/NCTHweb.nsf
Ontario Curriculum Centre
439 University Avenue, 18th Floor
Toronto, ON M5G 1Y8
Phone: 1-800-837-3048
Fax: (416) 591-1578
Website: www.curriculum.org
Ontario Prevention Clearinghouse
180 Dundas Street, Suite 1900
Toronto, ON M5G 1Z8
Phone: 1-800-263-2846
Fax: (416) 408-2122
Website: www.opc.on.ca
Ontario Students Against Impaired Driving
5770 Hurontario, Street, Suite 507
Mississauga, ON L5R 3G5
Phone:1-877-70-OSAID (67243)
Fax: (905) 568-5161
Website: www.osaid.org
Ontario Tobacco Free Network
20 Holly Street, Suite 302
Toronto, Ontario M4S 3B1
Phone: 1-866-922-2238
Fax: (416) 440-3331
Website: www.theotn.org
Parents Against Drugs
7 Hawksdale Road
North York, ON M3K 1W3
Phone (416) 395-4970
Fax: (416) 395-4972
Website: www.parentactionondrugs.org
Program Training and Consultation Centre
c/o City of Ottawa, Public Health & Long Term Care Branch
495 Richmond Road
Ottawa, Ontario K2A 4A4
Phone: 1-800-363-7822
Fax: (613) 724-4116
Website: www.ptcc-cfc.on.ca
Public Health Department
Please consult your local listig for an office in your community.
Website: http://www.health.gov.on.ca/english/public/contact/
phu/phuloc_dt.html
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What are the facts around youth and tobacco use?
Teens are concerned about their appearance and social life… - Dating - 8 out of 10 guys and 7 out of 10 girls say they would not date someone who smokes.
- Wrinkling - smoking causes premature wrinkling. It makes the skin dry and leathery.
- Zits & Hair Loss - it takes longer for acne to heal and it causes hair loss in some teens.
- Yellow Teeth - smoking causes yellows teeth and tooth decay and contributes to oral cancer.
The statistics…
- Smoking isn't popular - 94 % of 12 to 14 year olds don't smoke, while 75% of secondary school kids don't smoke. More girls smoke than boys.
- Addictive - 8 out of 10 teens who try smoking get hooked. Only 5% of student smokers think that they will be smoking in 5 years. But 5 years later, 80% of them are heavy smokers.
- Advertising - kids are twice as likely to be influenced by advertising as they are from peer pressure. They are three times more sensitive to advertising than adults. Norway banned advertising and halved the number of children taking up smoking.
- Staggering numbers - teenagers smoke more than a billion cigarettes a year - resulting in retail sales worth over $400 million. The average teen smoker spends $1,000 a year on cigarettes.
- Premature death - it is estimated that 55% of young men and 51% of young women who started smoking by age 15 will die before age 70 if they continue to smoke.
- Cocaine - cigarette smoking is more addictive and harder to quit than heroin or cocaine.
- Canadian deaths - tobacco kills more than 40,000 Canadians per year. That's more than the total number of deaths from AIDS, traffic accidents, suicide, murder, fires and accidental poisoning.
Tobacco contains …
- Nicotine - a powerful mood-altering substance that is extremely toxic and addictive. Two to three drops of pure nicotine can kill you.
- Tar - a dark sticky combination of hundreds of chemicals including poisons and cancer-causing substances.
- Carbon monoxide - a deadly poison that replaces the oxygen in red blood cells. Smokers will perform more poorly in aerobic fitness tests.
- 4,000 chemicals including: ammonia, lead, benzene, arsenic, dioxin, and formaldehyde. Over 40 of these can cause cancer.
Smoking can cause or promote …
- Cancer in the lungs, mouth, sinuses, throat, brain, breast, uterus, bladder, kidney, thyroid, lymph glands and blood.
- Serious ailments, such as bronchitis, pneumonia, emphysema, strokes, heart attacks, ulcers, cataracts, gum disease, tooth decay, ear infections, dry skin, early aging, and impotence.
- Respiratory problems, such as increased coughing, phlegm, wheezing, chest colds and shortness of breath, even in smokers who smoke as little as one cigarette per week.
- Asthma attacks or increased asthma symptoms.
- Colder fingers and toes and a dulled sense of smell and taste.
Environmental Tobacco Smoke (Secondhand Smoke) …
- Causes the same ailments as those suffered by smokers.
- Contains more hazardous substances than inhaled smoke and contains 2.7 times as much nicotine, 70% times more tar and 2.5 times greater carbon monoxide levels.
- Aggravates symptoms of hay fever and asthma.
- Is responsible for 300 premature deaths per year.
Quitting Smoking …
- Over half of Grade 12 students are unable to quit and more than 70% of these students still smoke eight years later due to nicotine addiction.
- 60% of smokers try to quit - most smokers quit several times before stopping for good.
- 80% of smokers would like to quit.
Tobacco And The Law …
- Ontario law prohibits the sale of tobacco if the person is under 19.
- Advertising and promotion of tobacco products is prohibited on TV, radio and newspapers.
- Health warnings must be on tobacco products and must list the toxins.
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Where can I find other tobacco prevention websites?
Tobacco Prevention
TeenNet
www.cyberisle.org
An interactive site with chat rooms and bulletin boards for teen issues including smoking.
Health Canada Tobacco Reduction
www.hc-sc.gc.ca/main/hppb/tobaccoreduction/
Offers information and recent news about tobacco control in Canada.
Health Canada Tobacco Facts
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hecs-sesc/tobacco/facts/
Contains facts, reports, surveys, programs, and links to other sites.
BC Ministry of Health Tobacco Facts
www.tobaccofacts.org
Features interactive fun and games, and facts about smoking and about the tobacco industry. Has
links to other interesting sites.
Nicotine Free Kids
www.nicotinefreekids.com
Voted #1 Teen Tobacco Site in the U.S. Interactive site which contains a lot of great information and activities for teens.
Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada
www.smoke-free.ca
Contains facts about cigarette sales and marketing strategies and an interactive exercise to determine amount of chemicals inhaled by smokers and through second hand smoke.
The Surgeon General's Report for Kids on Smoking
www.cdc.gov/tobacco/sgr/sgr4kids/sgrmenu.htm
On-line smoke-free magazine contains facts about dangers and the effects of smoking on health. Has examples of what kids have done in the states to combat cigarette advertising and make schools smoke-free.
Teens and Tobacco
www.cdc.gov/tobacco/tips_4_youth/stand.htm
Surprising information about the chemicals in tobacco smoke and the diseases caused by smoking.
The Great American Smokeout
www.cancer.org/smokeout
A colourful, interactive site with quizzes, games, and ideas for tobacco awareness days in schools.
Making Changes
BADvertising Institute
www.badvertising.org
Creative and thought provoking spoofs on tobacco advertising.
Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids
www.tobaccofreekids.org
Youth and tobacco information and tobacco advertising information.
Join Together Tobacco Project
www.jointogether.org
Accessibility of cigarettes for kids.
Youth Media Network
www.pbs.org/merrow/listenup
Health information service for youth. Highlights actions taken by youth groups and encourages youth to communicate health messages through the media.
Smoking Cessation
Quit Smoking Support
www.quitsmokingsupport.com
Chat rooms and bulletin boards, quit smoking assistance, and teen information.
Quit For Life Program
www.quit4life.com
Stories of teens who are trying to quit smoking. An interactive site that offers realistic, supportive advice and a chat room.
The Quit Net
www.quitnet.org
A free program to help smokers quit, featuring chat rooms, and lists of services.
Tips 4 Youth
www.cdc.gov/tobacco/tips4youth.htm
Links to other teen sites and tobacco sites that contain information about how to quit smoking, what's in cigarette's and posters.
General
The Lung Association
www.on.lung.ca
Respiratory health information for Ontarians. Home of Lungs are for Life On-line.
Canadian Health Network
www.canadian-health-network.ca/1tobacco.html
Provides easy access to information, resources, and FAQs about tobacco, including cool games and quizzes.
Centres for Disease Control
http://www.cdc.gov/doc.do/id/0900f3ec802346d8
Provides the latest research on substance use and abuse issues and also offers information on programs that are effective in reducing substance abuse.
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