Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Mar 01/02) - Tobacco companies are on notice: industry- sponsored programs aimed at youth are not going to cut it as far as Canadian physicians are concerned.

The Ontario and Canadian Medical Associations held a joint news conference Wednesday morning in Toronto, blasting tobacco companies for promoting prevention programs they say are little more than a smoke screen, designed to lure teens to start smoking.

"The real purpose of those programs is to ease restrictions on tobacco advertising," said OMA president Dr. Kenneth Sky.

"They want to seize public opinion, and make us seem unreasonable."

The programs in question: Operation ID, and Operation ID/School Zone, provide information to retailers about selling tobacco to minors.

Another tobacco sponsored project, Wise Decisions, is a pilot program which offers curriculum materials for use in schools.

"The first two programs are not enforced, do not address consumption, and according to our research, are ineffective," said Sky.

"The third, Wise Decisions, rests on a false premise, that young people need to decide whether to smoke when it's clear there is only one medical message: don't start."

No school connection

Neither Yellowknife Education District No.1 or Yellowknife Catholic Schools have adopted Wise Decisions as part of their smoking prevention programs.

Yet, several companies and retail chains with locations in Yellowknife are listed by the OMA as having partnerships with tobacco companies in promoting Operation ID.

Those companies are Shoppers Drug Mart, Canadian Tire, Shell Canada, and Petro Canada.

Management at both Canadian Tire and Shoppers Drug Mart said they were unaware that any tobacco sponsored programs aimed at youths existed.

Any partnership with big tobacco, said Shoppers Drug Mart owner, Daryl Dolynny, would have been a "corporate decision" from the Toronto head office.

Dolynny said he has never personally been involved with any partnerships with tobacco sponsored prevention programs.

Dr. Ken Seethram, president of the NWT Medical Association, said the message out of Ontario takes on special significance for the North.

According to the NWT Bureau of Statistics, nearly 65 per cent of NWT youths aged 15 to 24 smoke -- almost double the average of other Canadian teens, according to 1996 numbers.

"The programs are targeting consumption when they should targeting access," said Seethram. "There's no safe level of tobacco consumption therefore, don't do it."