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Tue, September 14, 2004 Scare-smoker ads given test Gov't tries 'em out on students By FRANK LANDRY, LEGISLATURE REPORTER The Manitoba government is hoping to scare young smokers straight -- but teen puffers say the plan won't make them butt out any time soon. Healthy Living Minister Jim Rondeau yesterday rolled out what he called a "rate and review initiative." Under the plan, students in Grades 6 to 12 are being asked to rate 12 anti-smoking television ads selected by youth focus groups. One ad included a graphic image of a tar-covered lung. Another told the story of a young teenager who lost her mother to a smoking-related illness. "These ads hold nothing back," said Rondeau, who yesterday showed the spots to a group of students at West Kildonan Collegiate. Students who sat through the presentation said the ads were enough to swear them off tobacco. But young puffers having a smoke outside the school said it would take more then a commercial to get them to quit. "Seeing pictures isn't going to kill off the addiction," said Derek Scherbain, 17. Scherbain said he smokes about eight cigarettes a day. He said it would take cigarettes going up to "$1,000 a pack" before he quit. "They say it only takes a year for your lungs to heal, no matter how long you smoke," Scherbain said. Studies have found it takes 10 to 15 years for a former smoker's risk of premature death to approach that of a person who has never smoked, according to the U.S.-based Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. Samantha King, also 17, said she knows she shouldn't smoke but continues to do so. "It's mostly, 'Oh, you shouldn't smoke,' but nobody's really actively trying to get you to stop," said King, a half-pack a day puffer. Vanessa Johnson, 15, sat through Rondeau's presentation and said she has no plans to ever pick up the habit. "My dad smokes so I personally don't like it at all," Johnson said. "I think it's a bad habit." Johnson, however, acknowledged teens are stubborn and a government campaign may not be enough to get smokers to quit. The commercial with the highest approval rating will air on local TV stations in the spring. Some of the spots were produced within Canada, while others came from the United States and Australia. Manitoba's child-smoking rate dropped nearly 50% between 1994 and 2002, according to recent Statistics Canada figures. In 1994 -- the first year of the agency's Youth Smoking Survey -- 12.4% of Manitobans between the age of 10 and 14 smoked. The federal agency found the rate had dropped to 6.4% by 2002. Manitoba's smoking rate among 15- to 19-year-olds has also fallen -- to 20% last year from 23% two years ago, according to a recent Health Canada report.

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