New service launches to stop young people smoking in Suffolk

With almost 40% of smokers admitting they started smoking regularly before the age of 16, we are launching an innovative new service to prevent young people and teenagers from taking up the habit.

CTRL Z is the youth arm of Live Well Suffolk and will work to undo the influence of tobacco on younger generations. Nationally, 3% of 11-15 year olds admit to smoking but in Suffolk the average is higher, at 3.5%. Areas in the county where smoking prevalence is particularly high among 11-15 year olds is the Sudbury South ward (6.4%), and Whitehouse in Ipswich (4.7%)*.

Additionally, almost 16% of 16 and 17 year olds in the county smoke, but in areas such as Haverhill South, Sudbury South and Gipping in Ipswich, the figures stand at 20.4%, 20.2% and 19.1% respectively.

To launch the new service, we are visiting Suffolk New College in Ipswich today (Wednesday 11^th March, National No Smoking Day) where we will be carrying out carbon monoxide breath tests to educate students about the harmful chemicals that smokers are exposed to. We will also be using age progression software to show students how smoking can damage their appearance, and talking to students about the dangers of smoking and the affects it can have on their health.

The name of the new service reflects the ‘undo’ function which comes from pressing the ‘CTRL’ and ‘Z’ buttons on a computer keyboard.

Anna Keane is our Youth Campaign Co-ordinator for Smoking Prevention and heads up the new service. She said: “We’re very excited to be launching CTRL Z in Suffolk. Not only are we aiming to inspire and empower young people not to get involved in smoking, we can also work with those who have taken up the habit to cut down and quit.

“We will do this by getting them involved in campaigning against tobacco companies, by educating them about how the tobacco industry operates, the huge profits they make and the tactics they use to market their products to teenagers, who they view as the smokers of tomorrow.”

We are also looking to recruit young people to act as Anti-Tobacco Campaigners. The volunteers will receive training from our CTRL Z team to enable them to deliver stop smoking and anti-tobacco messages to their peers.

Meanwhile, schools and youth clubs across the county are being encouraged to sign up to support the anti-tobacco campaign. By doing so, they will have access to a range of workshops and information sessions such as Operation Smoke Storm, an online, interactive programme which links into the school curriculum.

As part of CTRL Z, we can also deliver shisha workshops to address common misconceptions about water-pipe smoking, tar jar making workshops to help young people see what tar looks like in their lungs and workshops that explore behaviour and decision making.

The launch of our new CTRL Z service comes as smokers across the UK are being encouraged to think twice about their habit this week. Today is National No Smoking Day which is run by the British Heart Foundation and inspires and helps smokers who want to quit. MPs are also due to vote today on the proposed introduction of plain cigarette packaging.

For more information about the new CTRL Z service, contact Live Well Suffolk on 01473 229292, or visit the CTRL Z or Live Well Suffolk websites: www.ctrl-z.org.uk / www.livewellsuffolk.org.uk.