Camosun's Tobacco Use Reduction Task Force
Archived Content
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Tobacco use survey results and Quit to Win (Q2W) contest
December 10, 2009
In early 2009, the Camosun College Joint Occupational Safety and Health Committee (JOSH) decided to become a part of the Tobacco-Free Post-Secondary Initiative. This initiative is a joint venture between the BC Lung Association and the BC Healthy Living Alliance that is designed to address the worrying fact that young adults aged 20 to 24 have the highest rate of smoking in British Columbia, followed by 25 to 29 year olds. A major goal is to support universities and colleges in creating healthier campus environments by reducing exposure to second hand smoke, educating the campus community and increasing access to quit support resources. By working with universities and colleges to identify and address gaps in their current tobacco policies and quit support services, the BC Lung Association is helping these institutions create healthier teaching and learning environments.
In Spring 2009 a new JOSH subcommittee was created called the “Tobacco Use Reduction Task Force” to deal specifically with tobacco related issues on both College campuses. Some major goals and objectives of the TURTF include:
- To provide leadership and direction for the development and implementation of a tobacco use reduction campaign on campus
- To develop new or strengthen existing tobacco related campus policies
- To facilitate increased awareness of the health effects of tobacco use, cessation strategies and support resources for those who want to quit.
As no information regarding tobacco use, knowledge and attitudes had ever been performed at Camosun College, a survey entitled “Tobacco Use at Camosun College 2009” was constructed and electronically distributed to all faculty, staff and students at Camosun College between Friday May 1st 2009 and Wednesday May 20th 2009. This survey was a key component of Camosun College’s participation in the Tobacco-Free Post-Secondary Initiative. There were 1583 complete responses to this survey in this time period, indicating that the Camosun community felt passionately about this issue. Brief summary of the major results of the survey...(pdf)
As an incentive to completing the survey, we offered a free 8GB iPod Nano as a draw prize. All respondents were automatically entered into the draw upon completing the survey. The winner of this prize was Paul Smolarz, a student in Civil Engineering Technology at the College. He was presented with his prize on September 8th at CamFest on the Lansdowne Campus, where the TURTF had set up a Fresh Air booth (see attached photos – Paul on the left and Tony Webster of the TURTF on the right).
If you have further comments regarding tobacco use on Campus you are encouraged to send your thoughts to the Tobacco Use Reduction Task Force at turtf@camosun.bc.ca.
Camosun Quit to Win contest
Camosun College has partnered with the British Columbia Lung Association (through the Tobacco Free Post Secondary Initiative) and the Canadian Cancer Society (through the Tobacco Free Workplace Initiative) to reduce tobacco use among students and employees of the College and to minimize exposure of non-smokers to second hand smoke on campus. The TURTF at Camosun College will be holding a Quit to Win (Q2W) contest that will be open to all Camosun College students, staff and faculty and will run during the winter term of 2010 at Camosun College. The Camosun Q2W contest will “piggyback” right after the provincial Quit Now & Win contest (run by the BC Lung Association) which will take place from Jan 5th to Feb 2nd 2010. To register for the provincial Quit Now & Win contest go to: www.quitnow.ca – the deadline to register is January 4th, 2010.
For information on the Quit to Win (Q2W) contest at Camosun College, email the Tobacco Use Reduction Task Force at: TURTF@camosun.bc.ca. Stay tuned for further details in the New Year!
Contact
Tony Webster, Ph.D., CSCS, CSEP-CEP,
Centre for Sport and Exercise Education,
250–220–2558
Last updated: December 10, 2009 12:36 pm
