Page 9 - Inspire_SpringSummer_DigitalEdition

Supporting Young People
These new challenges include:
• Smoking entrenched among the most deprived
and hardest to reach elements of society.
• Mental health issues: depression in adolescence
linked to smoking in adulthood.
• Tobacco industry evading advertising restrictions
by promoting cigarettes in films, videos, gaming
and social media - endorsing smoking as
‘fashionable’.
• Proliferation of different forms of tobacco
consumption, including increased use of cannabis
and shisha or water-pipes.
• Cheap illicit tobacco – bought more by young
people than adults.
• Teenage pregnancy - younger mothers, women
in disadvantaged circumstances and those who
have never worked are more likely to smoke
while pregnant.
• Higher than average smoking rates among the
LGBT community and among young offenders.
A key part of the report was a survey of people working
in public health, research and third sector organisations. the age of 13 or 14, yet,
This showed that 73% of respondents believe public
health teams do not have sufficient funding to support
young people to avoid smoking.
As a charity, we have campaigned tirelessly to support
tobacco control measures such as the 2007 ban on
smoking in enclosed workplaces and public places, the
2011 ban on selling cigarettes from vending machines
and the 2015 law banning smoking in vehicles carrying
children.
This is why the work of our Cut Films project is so
important, helping young people make films to get across
the anti-smoking message to their friends and peers,
often in neglected or under-represented communities.
So the report sets out a ‘route-map’ for tackling these
issues.As it says,“We need a broad and ambitious agenda
setting out our aspirations.Without this, the UK will see
an unravelling of the vital progress made to challenge the It is indeed, and let’s hope this young man can quit
smoking epidemic in the past century.This is a pivotal
time and action must be swift.”
Professor Linda Bauld, Deputy Director of the UK
Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, who contributed
to compiling the report, is quite clear what must be done.
She says,“Stop smoking services need to be protected
and we need mass media campaigns.”
Our Chief Executive, Paula Chadwick, agrees.“Public
health budgets in local authorities are facing
unprecedented cuts, which deepen entrenched divisions
within our society,” she says.“We need early intervention;
we need to be bold to reach all sectors of society, and
we need to be cost-effective.”
As evidence of how Cut Films is reaching out to engage
youngsters, 18-year-old Zaboor Chaudhry is delighted
to have had the opportunity to take part in the project.
Having studied Media Production at Harrow College, he
attended workshops run by Cut Films to expand and
develop his film-making skills. He was invited to help with
the project, and soon found himself filming an interview
with Bob Blackman, MP for Harrow East at a major anti-
tobacco demonstration in Bristol.
Many of Zaboor’s friends
and contemporaries are
smokers – in fact, he says
sadly, the majority of
them are. He tried
smoking himself, around
even though he found it
disgusting, he could see
how it might become
addictive.
He says,“Luckily I never
started and Cut Films helped keep it that way.” While he
is undoubtedly lucky, Zaboor is also wise, and takes pride
and pleasure in helping other young people by sharing his
knowledge and skills and by showing them his work.
One of his closest friends is slowly getting the message,
cutting back from around 20 cigarettes a day to just two.
As Zaboor describes it,“Baby steps, really, but he can’t
just quit just like that. Still, it’s a very big improvement”.
completely.We wish him every success.
As our report shows, the pressures and challenges facing
young people have never been greater, at a time when
public health support has been drastically reduced.That’s
why the Cut Films project is so vital, and why we are so
proud of their work.
Spring/Summer 9