City in drive to prevent smoking among learners 

23 February 2017

 

The City of Johannesburg’s Environmental Health Department on Wednesday February 22 took its anti-smoking awareness campaign to Troyeville Primary School in Region F in partnership with the South African National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (Sanca).

 

The campaign – which focused on the health hazards caused by smoking and abuse of substances – followed an invitation by the school’s management after realising that many of the learners were exposed to “smoking environments” in their homes and communities.

“Every now and then, we get a few cases of learners caught with substances trying to experiment. Whenever that happens, we call in their parents and immediately resolve the issue. Fortunately, we haven’t come across cases of addiction among the learners,” said the school’s Deputy Principal, Coen Steenkamp.

“We thought that the campaign was definitely needed because even their health is threatened.”

The campaign was aimed particularly at grades 4 and 5 learners.

Steenkamp said many of the children were from poor backgrounds. Some lived in inhabitable housing conditions, including old and abandoned buildings, which gave rise to a variety of societal ills, including the proliferation of substances.

The campaign motivated the learners to stay tobacco-free. It also created awareness among them about some of the diseases associated with smoking and substance abuse, such as lung cancer, liver cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart disease, erectile dysfunction, TB, ectopic pregnancy, vision loss, colorectal cancer, Rheumatoid arthritis, cervical cancer and bladder cancer.

Audrey Rangata, the City’s Environmental Health Practitioner, said second-hand or passive smoking was also a major problem. “Some kids may not be tempted to smoke. But if they live in an environment where people smoke they can also get affected,” she said.

“Second-hand smoking can affect their wellbeing. So, with this campaign we are not only preventing the kids from smoking, but we are also aiming at empowering them with information to pass onto their elders.”

Nomhle Thwala of Sanca said: “We’re in this campaign with the City of Johannesburg in an effort to minimise the culture of smoking.

“We’ve found that smoking and substance abuse start at a tender age. That’s why we target primary schools. We want to ensure that this behaviour is stopped at an early stage.”