World No Tobacco Day and the Truth About Philip Morris' "Education" Campaign
May 21, 2009 -- World No Tobacco Day is celebrated globally every year on May 31st. The event, sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO), is an opportunity to educate the public on the negative health outcomes associated with tobacco use and the deceitful marketing practices of tobacco companies, and is also a means of protecting future generations from the harmful effects of tobacco.
The theme for this year’s World No Tobacco Day is “Tobacco Health Warnings.” Since warning labels are a proven strategy for raising public awareness, the WHO recommends labels that employ images of the maladies, such as cancers of the mouth, that can be caused by the the cigarettes or smokeless tobacco within the packaging.
As schools and districts celebrate World No Tobacco Day, they might also consider another important aspect of curbing young people’s smoking initiation: youth-targeted anti-smoking campaigns. An article appeared in the February 2009 issue of the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health examining both the American Legacy Foundation’s truth® campaign and the Philip Morris’ “Think. Don’t Smoke.”
The study shows that while independently funded truth® lowered young people’s intent to smoke and increased anti-smoking attitudes, the industry-backed “Think. Don’t Smoke” campaign failed to deter youth from using tobacco products and may have even increased teens’ intentions to smoke. These results suggest that Philip Morris and other industry giants may be more interested in appearing to promote smoke-free young people than actually discouraging minors from smoking.
This study provides an important lesson in objectivity and comes with a caveat regarding accepting tobacco company offers of book covers, curricula, t-shirt and other promotional products as well as tobacco industry sponsorship on school grounds. Refusing industry money and materials creates a tobacco-free environment for the whole school community and establishes a commitment to the health of staff, students and parents.
World No Tobacco Day provides an excellent occasion for schools and districts to pull out their tobacco policies and make sure they are comprehensive and include provisions to keep the tobacco industry and their influence out of our schools.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Guidelines for School Health Programs to Prevent Tobacco Use and Addiction are an excellent resource for helping schools achieve health and education goals through comprehensive tobacco policies. To access these guidelines and other information and resources on tobacco-free school policies, please visit NSBA’s National Consortium on Tobacco Use Prevention through Schools webpage or email schoolhealth@nsba.org.