The Jamaica Cancer Society has made a call for submissions for their poster competition under the theme “You’re The Target. Say No To Tobacco”.

The competition, which was introduced to students at the recently held Jamaica Cancer Society Anti-Tobacco Youth Forum, urges students between the ages of 14 and 18 to submit original drawings on or before the deadline of April 30, 2015.

Wise words

At the forum, the society, in collaboration with the Jamaica Coalition for Tobacco Control, Jamaica National Building Society and Carlong Publishers had its sixth staging under the theme, “It’s Your Body. Protect it… Say No To Tobacco Smoking”. The aim — to inform the youths of the dangers of smoking and also how to manage their money wisely.

Students from various high schools were fed vital information from presenters Dr Aldyth Buckland, Rose Miller, Dr Geoffrey Walcott, Daniel Brown, Alex Gardner and Enid Baptise.

Dr Buckland kicked off the forum with how smoking affects the bodies.

“The body is like a car, if the car receives no maintenance and rides on a bumpy surface it may be detrimental to the longgevity of that car. Similarly, our bodies need to be maintained and one such way is through what we allow inside of it. A car cannot run on bad gas, similarly the body cannot function on bad gas. This bad gas comes from smoking cigars [cigarettes], and the effect only takes seven seconds to hit the brain, damaging the neuro transmitters.”

Next to present was Rose Miller from the Jamaica National Building Society. She started her presentation with a quote from Earl Jarret, “saving is the key to driving investment in society”.

Miller urged students to save the money they have and not buy addictive substances such as cigarettes

At intervals, moderator, Yulit Gordon, executive director of Jamaica Cancer Society, conducted friendly battles among the students who answered questions correctly, for prizes from sponsors.

Next to present was Dr Geoffrey Walcott, he exposed teens to the tactics of cigar companies to keep teens wanting more.

“Whilst it is banned to advertise cigarettes, social media and movies have made smoking socially acceptable,” he explained.

Daniel Brown showed video clips on the consequences of smoking, he also revealed that there are over 7,000 chemicals found in cigars. The popular hookah parties are also dangerous he said, since one hookah is equal to about 300 cigarettes.

The forum attendees were later entertained by popular artiste and junior ambassador of the Gregory Isaacs Foundation, QQ, who wasted no time in telling youths to stay away from drugs because there is nothing cool about it.

Whilst, most are aware that ‘smoking kills’ they still engage in this lethal activity.

Alex Gardener stated that peer pressure was a contributing factor to this. He revealed that peer pressure is not only through bullying.

“Dealing with peer pressure is difficult but not impossible. You must recognise when you are being pressured, think about the results and respond confidently.”

The forum ended with Enid Baptiste, registered dietician and nutritionist.

Baptiste implored teens to start having better eating habits,

”more kids are having diseases that were once for more mature individuals.”