Smoke free signs at schools to protect young people

The Public Health Agency (PHA), in conjunction with the Education Authority, has installed smoke free signs at the school gates of over 100 primary schools in the South Eastern region to encourage parents and guardians to stub it out and help protect their children from the harmful effects of smoking. 

Smoking is the single greatest cause of preventable illness, premature death and health inequality throughout Northern Ireland.

This initiative aims to encourage adults not to smoke near schools gates in order to:

• Create a positive ‘smoke free’ image for the school and its pupils;
• Support the ‘No Smoking’ messages that pupils are taught in lessons;
• Reduce smoking-related litter around school premises;
• Empower parents to speak up about smoke around their children;
• Reduce the amount of smoking that children are exposed to, thus ‘de-normalising’ smoking.

Gerry Bleakney, Strategic Lead for Tobacco Control with the PHA, said: “More than four out of every five adult smokers began smoking in their teens or younger so it is extremely important to discourage young people from starting to smoke in the first place. 

“Young people who experiment with cigarettes do not believe they will become addicted; they think it will be easy to stop smoking and do not worry about the impact on their health in later life. Nicotine addiction is powerful, similar to that of heroin, and it is for this reason that there is a wide range of specialist stop smoking services in community pharmacies, GP surgeries, and hospital and community clinics to help and support people to stop smoking.

“Smoking initiation is associated with a wide range of risk factors including parental and sibling smoking, so we hope that these signs will remind parents and or guardians of the dangers of smoking and the impact it can have both mentally and physically to their children, and encourage them to stop smoking.

“Although the signage is not a ban and there are no fines or enforcement, it is a polite request to encourage adults not to smoke in areas primarily used by children, creating a more pleasant environment. The signage acts as a simple but powerful deterrent and is largely self-regulating. To date the signs have been very well received by the schools in the South Eastern area and plans are under way to extend this initiative to other areas in Northern Ireland.

“If we are to reduce the numbers of young people taking up smoking, it is vital that we reduce children’s exposure to smoking wherever we can. This initiative is one simple but effective strategy,” concluded Gerry.

If you are a smoker and would like to stop, visit the PHA’s ‘Want 2 Stop’ website at www.want2stop.info where you can find useful tips to stop smoking and you can also order a ‘Quit Kit’ free of charge which will help you plan your quit attempt.