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NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
The territorial government has done much work in the recent past to help reduce smoking rates among members of the public, but 2011 may be as progressive a year as any in its efforts.

Miriam Wideman, a health promotion specialist with the Department of Health and Social Services, deals directly with the government's approach to tobacco-related addictions in the territory.

She says a number of efforts have come about in recent years to make the high rates of tobacco use come down. But there is still much work to do.

"We find addiction rates exactly double the Canadian average but we are declining," she said, referring to data retrieved from a 2009 department tobacco addiction survey. "So while it is better than Nunavut or Yukon, we are still unacceptably high."

That said, she said that since 2000, the rate of users has had a healthy rate of decline and over the long-term the high rates will eventually come down.

Most notably, she said that between 2006 and 2009, according to surveys, current smoking rates for adults 15 and up dropped to 36 per cent from 41 per cent. At the same time, the Canadian average is 18 per cent, so NWT is still way too high.

Legislative efforts have had a big impact on a continuing change to the smoking culture, Wideman said. Perhaps most significantly, in August the government decided to cover the cost of three months of nicotine replacement therapies or smoking-cessation drugs.

Efforts by the city to ban smoking in certain public areas also helps the cause of reduction.

"When there are bans on smoking in public spaces, there is evidence to show that it decreases smoking rates because there are less places that people can smoke," she said. "It conveys the message that it is less socially acceptable to smoke. So it puts pressure on people to quit."

Since March 2008, the NWT has offered a 24/7 telephone Quit Line which has provided addicts with confidential access to helpful professionals such as registered nurses and cessation councillors to combat tobacco use. Although callers will find that the line goes through the British Columbia smoking addict services line, they still receive advice and encouragement to quit and get over the addiction.

Wideman said the service is offered in both English and French, and can accommodate those needing service in any of the territory's official languages. What is different this year is the territorial government has signed a contract with Health Canada so the Quit Line will be funded for the next four years on a consistent basis.

Wideman says this will provide her department with some predictability so it can promote the line's benefits among the population. To date, that stability has not been available and it has meant there has not been a high number of NWT citizens using the service.

Traditionally, there have been certain unique factors the NWT has faced when it comes to smoking, including high usage found in isolated and outlying communities.

One factor that has contributed to the territory's high rate of smoking has been boredom, Wideman said. As a result, aboriginal citizens are among those with the highest addiction rates, according to the 2009 survey.

"As we have found from our data, tobacco use is much higher among First Nations and it is important that we focus in the future on their needs," Wideman said.

Use among youth is considered to be declining as school programming has made significant progress in deterring students from lighting up, Wideman said.

Among the prevention programs, the Don't Be a Butthead campaign has been probably the most popular and has focused on kids aged eight to 14.

The program is currently on hiatus until the fall of 2013 while the program is being revised. Wideman said it will get more of a community-based revision, whereas in the past it had been presented more centrally.

It can be said that for the past seven years it has been extremely important for instilling confidence and providing information for younger students to think about not smoking.

Another program, Smoke Screenings, attempts to reinforce anti-tobacco messages among junior high and high school students. The program discusses the actual hazards of smoking and focuses on the consequences, such as showing how a person breathes when they emphysema, or how second-hand smoke affects a person.

This year, the Smoke Screenings program has featured a "Get Real" campaign, which asks students to create advertisements about people who have been effected by smoking.

Dean MacInnis, Sir John Franklin High School assistant principal, suggested that, based on his observation, such programming has greatly impacted historic smoking culture in high schools.

"At middle schools, it is not as prevalent as in the past and I think it is because the kids realize side effects and such," he said. "I would not be surprised that if you collected stats of kids smoking that you would find that it is diminishing over time. Smoking is costly, it is dangerous, and the kids just know it."

He also said behaviour among students, of which programming plays a role, has an impact on whether or not younger students pick up the deadly habit as well.

"One of the things is that for younger guys, if they see older guys smoking it grabs their attention for whatever reason," MacInnis said. "It is also true that some kids are a little a little bit more vulnerable because smoking is a little bit more accepted at home."

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