Despite millions being spent on anti-smoking campaigns, the introduction of plain packaging, graphic health warnings on cigarette packs and the gradual phasing in of laws prohibiting smoking in public places, many Whittlesea residents continue to light up.
According to a 2011-12 population health survey, the municipality has the fourth highest rate of smokers in metropolitan Melbourne. And it’s a statistic the council wants to change.
Council outfit Healthy Whittlesea Together has partnered with the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service and Thomastown West Primary School to get kids engaged in a campaign to phase out the addiction by creating colourful “Smoke Free Zone” posters to put up around the school.
Thomastown West Primary School principal Leon Bell said he hoped the project would deter students from smoking in adolescence.
“It’s about early intervention,” he said.
“We don’t want them to fall into that trap. But it’s difficult for those students whose parents smoke. They face a dilemma when the school says one thing and their parents do another.”
The posters will also be on display in the Thomastown library and in other parts of the suburb.
The laws in Victoria ban smoking within 10 metres of all playgrounds, childcare centres, kindergartens, schools, indoor play centres, public swimming pools, public hospitals and community health centres.
