The Ministry of Health Planning has "an extensive collection of tobacco prevention, enforcement and cessation materials and resources avilable to anyone at no cost in BC"(BC Tobacco Control: A year in review 2003, 2003, para1).

Many prevention interventions have been used to decrease smoking in youth ages 12 to 17. The BC Health Planning has an article that helps celebrate the successful partnership in BC for tobacco control. The Ministry of Health Planning has “an extensive collection of tobacco prevention, enforcement and cessation materials and resources available to anyone at no cost in BC” (BC Tobacco Control: A Year in Review 2003, 2003, para 1). Over 50,000 materials and resources have been distributed across BC to support tobacco control efforts in 2003.

Prevention source BC is free of charge and provides “prevention, cessation and enforcement resources to all BC health and education professionals, school and community-based prevention workers, government and non-government agencies, health authorities and any organization working in tobacco prevention, cessation or control” (Prevention Source BC [PSBC], n.d., para 1).

BC healthy living alliance has an organization that focuses on common risk factors to improve the health of BC. The Ministry of health planning and Ministry of education have come up with a project known as bc.tobaccofacts -a tobacco prevention resources for teachers, grades 4 to 12. This program was evaluated in 2004 and 91.5% of teachers said they will use it again, 93.3% would recommend to other teachers, and 95% said it was age appropriate (BC Ministry of Health Services, 2004).

Health Canada has a project out called science, tobacco and you, for grades 4 to 6. This project looks at the negative effects of nicotine on body.

Vancouver Costal Health has an awareness campaign on tobacco free sports, focusing on baseball, as well as Fraser Health which focuses on hockey. During sporting events information is displayed about the dangers of tobacco use. The prevention strategies used are mainly transmission were the teachers teach the students such as bc.tobaccofacts, science, tobacco and you.

The Daily (2006) which is a report done by statistics Canada shows how smoking levels have decreased in British Columbia. In 2000/2001 26% of youth smoked, which have decreased to 22% in 2005. The report states that the “sharpest decline was among young people aged 12 to 17” (The Daily, 2006, p. 1).

With health promotion the “prevalence of smoking has declined among both men and women, and across all age groups” (The Daily, 2006, p. 3) “The sharpest decrease was among young people aged 12 to 17” which decreased from 14% in 2000/2001 to 8% in 2005. The reason for the low rate is because a “number of young people never start to smoke” (The Daily, 2006, p. 3).

In 2005 82% of youth said they never smoked. British Columbia smoking rate is below the national average which is 22%. In BC 639,400 people smoke which is 17.8% of the population (The Daily, 2006).

Reference

Canada. The Daily. (2006, June). Canadian Community Health Survey: New data on smoking and on diabetes. Retrieved
October 19, 2006, from Statistics Canada web site http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/060613/d060613a.htm.

Canada. BC Ministry of Health. (2006, June). Tobacco control program. Retrieved October 19, 2006, from
http://www.healthservices.gov.bc.ca/tobacco/.

Prevention Source BC. (n.d.). About prevention source BC. Retrieved October 22, 2006,from
http://www.preventionsource.org/about.htm.