SANIKILUAQ
With 59 per cent of residents 12 years and older using tobacco products, Nunavut's anti-smoking advocates have a lot of work to do.

Lourdes Hernandez, left, waves a Canadian flag as her daughter Gianna, 3, hides shyly behind one. The Hernandez family was celebrating their second year as Canadian citizens after Hernandez moved to Rankin Inlet to work as a nurse nine years ago, and brought her family over two years later. - Candace Thomson/NNSL photo

That's why the Department of Health is recruiting the peers of the most impressionable to help stop them before they start. In Sanikiluaq, students are latching on to the Tobacco Youth Action Team idea, taking the territorial title of team of the year for the second year in a row.

"One of the good things about the club is that it's not exclusive," said Paatsaali School teacher Scott McFadden, who with Gerda Westenenk leads the team of mostly Grade 8 and 9 students. "We welcome smokers. It's good to have them in the club, too, because they're also a target audience, the young ones that are just starting. They're thinking of quitting as well."

This year, the efforts of the team – Elijah Oqaituk, Abelie Iqaluk, Janie Audla, Joe Kattuk Kudluarok, Joe Willie Iqaluk, David CD Qavvik, and Paul Amagoalik – focused on trying to teach younger students why they shouldn't start smoking.

"They know their school and community the best," said health promotions specialist Paige Marshall, who coordinates the Youth Action Team program for the Department of Health. "They do have a lot of great ideas. What works for them, they are the expert on that. Quitting tobacco is a very personal thing. While we supply a bank of activity ideas, the onus is on that youth action team to create their plan for the year."

The Sanikiluaq group organized a community brunch at the high school, where they set up stations to raise awareness of the dangers of smoking. For example, they demonstrated a tar jar that detailed the chemicals in tobacco, and had a set of pig's lungs that showed how much tobacco would be in a smoker's lungs over the course of 20 years of smoking.

"I think it really does (make a difference), especially for prevention," McFadden said. "It's very difficult to convince someone who's already smoking to stop. That's a decision they have to make on their own. You could see the kids were really learning about some of the dangers, and that will be in the back of their minds the next time they're offered a cigarette."

"We need to tell them that it's not cool, it's not alright to use tobacco products," said Haley Anawak, a health promotions intern with the Department of Health's tobacco reduction team. "We have to wake up and smell our air. We have a lot of fresh air up here, but there's a lot of second-hand smoke around. This percentage, 59 per cent, is horrible. It's the worst in our country. We need to stop this tobacco insanity."

And that percentage appears to be higher among youth than the rest of the population, according to some estimates.

"The principal has told us that in his estimate, approximately 75 per cent of students smoke," said acting tobacco reduction specialist Frankie Best. "It's equally high in the other communities. Clearly there is a problem, and we have to be responsive to that, and develop cessation resources and a program to help kids that suddenly realize they're in the grips of an addiction."

By organizing the most awareness activities for the year, the Paatsaali team was rewarded with a pizza party worth $500 courtesy of the Department of Health. Four other teams – from Kugluktuk, Repulse Bay, Gjoa Haven and Iqaluit's Aqsarniit Middle School – participated in the awareness campaign.