|
Passive smoking? It’s Up-2-You!
Young people can now get the low down on passive smoking at the website
www.up-2-you.net and win some great prizes in the process.
Dr Brian Gaffney, Chief Executive of the Health
Promotion Agency for Northern Ireland (HPA), explained: "The website www.up-2-you.net has been
developed for young people and a new section has now been added to it which reveals how passive
smoking can affect your health and those around you - even your pets. We hope the information on
passive smoking will offer young people another reason not to smoke and let them know how to protect
themselves from those who do smoke. After all, passive smoking increases the risk of asthma, lung
cancer, heart disease and stroke."
The website is a good source of health
information for young people and deals with issues such as drugs, alcohol and mental health as well
as smoking. Recent feedback from this website showed that it has been very popular, with 90% of users
saying they would recommend it to their friends. A competition to win camera mobile phones, iPod
minis and vouchers for clothes or sports equipment is running on the website until 18 March 2005.
Posters and postcards providing details about the
competition have been distributed to all schools and youth clubs throughout Northern Ireland. Anyone
interested in entering the competition is encouraged to go to www.up-2-you.net
to find out the correct answers to three questions about passive smoking. The answers can be posted to the HPA using one of the
postcards or can be submitted online. The competition is aimed at young people in school years 8, 9 and
10 and older primary school children, but anyone under the age of 18 and living in Northern Ireland can
enter. Prizes are also up for grabs for young people who fill in the online feedback form at
www.up-2-you.net
Christiane Stitt, a pupil at St Joseph's College in
Belfast, has already entered the competition and said: "The website has brilliant graphics and it's not all
about your health. Until I had been to the website I didn't realise that passive smoking can harm pets.
There's also a house you can zoom into to see how everyone is affected by just one person smoking. I can't
wait to see if I've won a prize in the competition."
Dr Gaffney continued: "We know from research that the
majority of young people become involved with cigarettes in the first few years of secondary school. Often
these young people are making a decision that will affect their health for the rest of their lives without
knowing all the facts. At www.up-2-you.net they can get the facts."
END
For further information
Contact Jenny Dougan or Sinead Curran at the Health Promotion Agency for Northern Ireland on 028 9031 1611.
|
