Young people take a stand on smoking

Leigh Revilles, James Bannon and Charlotte Watson at the Watching Me, Watching You event

Young people from across the borough have attended a debate about ‘smoking in the media’ and the impact of plain cigarette packaging at a special youth event hosted at Media City - the first of its kind in the UK.

Members of the Rochdale Youth Council joined more than seventy 14-17 year olds from across the North West at the Watching Me, Watching You event in Salford to hear the views of entertainment and research experts and discuss the impact that cigarette branding and smoking in the media has on their friends and peers.

The day included workshops, activities and a host of specialist speakers including media professionals and smoking experts. Peer Researchers from the North West Regional Youth Work Unit also spoke about their findings after examining young peoples’ thoughts on how marketing, promotion and media references may influence their smoking behaviour and perceptions of smoking.

The young people’s views on these issues were recorded and will feed into the Government’s public consultation on whether the UK should adopt plain, standardised cigarette packs, which is due to launch in the coming weeks.

James Bannon from Rochdale Youth Council said: “Some of the packs are really attractive and enticing. If they used the plain packs that were covered in health warnings it might put young people off smoking because you wouldn’t want to be seen with a pack of those.”

Jane Rossini, Director of Public Health for Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale said: “It’s encouraging to know that young people from the local area were given an opportunity to voice their opinions about a subject that many feel passionate about.

“Smoking harms so many young people in our communities and it is important that we do as much as we can to keep it at the forefront of people’s minds.”

Watching Me, Watching You was the first event of it's kind in the country, and is part of a programme of activity planned by Smoke & Mirrors – a Tobacco Free Futures project which highlights the negative practices of the tobacco industry and encourages young people to look at tobacco harm in a completely new way.

Andrea Crossfield, Director of Tobacco Free Futures, said: “We have gained valuable insight from the young people and I hope we can develop some of their views and ideas to inform our work at Tobacco Free Futures, helping us turn off the tap to youth smoking and make smoking history for children.”

The North West is leading the way in the UK on youth tobacco issues, with research findings that suggest 8 out of 10 young people in the region think that the Government should do more to tackle smoking.