World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) is on 31 May. This year's World Health Organisation (WHO) theme is tobacco industry interference. The WHO aims to alert policy makers and the general public to the tobacco industry’s sinister tactics to obstruct tobacco control efforts.

Take time on WNTD to think about smoking and its effects, and offer advice and support to quit in your community!

World No Tobacco Day 2011

World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) is celebrated every year on 31 May. This year SmokeCheck asked all of our trained health workers to talk to their clients on WNTD to encourage them to think about their smoking and about the effects of smoking on their community.

Please see our information sheet for more suggestions for WNTD.

SmokeCheck visited Redfern Community Centre on WNTD 2011

The SmokeCheck team joined forces with the Sydney South West Local Health Network and Tharawal AMS to visit the Redfern Community Centre and take part in a World No Tobacco Day event. Despite the wet weather many local community members ventured out to see what was happening at their local centre, where they regularly drop in for lunch, playgroups, vocational lessons and other activities. Smokers who attended received information on the negative health effects of smoking and were encouraged to make a quit attempt, and those who were brave enough also tried the carbon monoxide smokelyzer. And people who are no longer smoking shared their motivational stories about quitting.

The Hon Kevin Humphries MP, Minister for Mental Health, Healthy Lifestyles and Western NSW attended the event and expressed his support for WNTD and for the work that SmokeCheck is doing towards smoke free Aboriginal communities in NSW. NITV and 702 ABC Radio were also there and spoke with the Minister to find out what plans NSW Health have for continuing its important work towards achieving this goal.

You can see some photos from the day at this link.

What did other NSW communities do for WNTD 2011?

Communities all over NSW were involved in a large variety of events and campaigns for WNTD which they shared with us.

Maari Ma's Inaugural WNTD Brief Intervention competition!

We heard from Shannon Hinton, Trainee Aboriginal Primary Health Care Worker at Maari Ma, telling us how they took up our suggestion to attempt 3 BIs per client on WNTD! Here's what she had to say about their success:

"Just letting you know that here at Maari Ma Aboriginal Health Corporation in Broken Hill we decided to brief intervene at least 3 people each for that day. One of our GPs ended up with 8 people! We have decided to have an annual ‘World No Tobacco Day’ trophy and have it engraved every year with the person who combats the most people in smoking brief intervention.

Thanks for the opportunity to take part. We will continue with ‘Smoking Brief Interventions’."

And thanks to Maari Ma for sharing this great story with us, we love the idea of the trophy!

Smoke free fun in Northern Sydney Central Coast Health Service

To acknowledge World No Tobacco Day, a smoke free sporting day was held for local high school students in the Central Coast, highlighting the importance of a healthy lifestyle. Banners proclaiming “This is a Smoke-Free Event, No Smoking on Aboriginal Land”, and a canteen providing healthy tucker, greeted 112 Central Coast high school students. The second annual Central Coast inter-schools touch football tournament was held on Friday 27 May. 10 teams of 12, including at least four girls per team, took part in a knockout competition organized by the Coast Pelican’s Aboriginal Corporation in partnership with Wyong Shire Council. Teams were made up of Aboriginal and non Aboriginal players from both Gosford and Wyong shires. The aim of the day was to promote participation in smoke free sport, healthy eating, team work and physical activity. Each student received a bag with health information including a phonegrip indicating how much smokers spend on their addiction.

Funding was provided by NSW Department of Health, Aboriginal Workforce Unit, who will work closely with Central Coast Local District to develop programs that improve Aboriginal student retention from Years 7 to 12 encouraging and supporting Aboriginal students to undertake a career in health. Special thanks go out to staff from the Health Promotion Unit, Environmental Services, Aboriginal Building Strong Foundations and Workforce Strategy Unit for their support.

Media campaign from Population Health Western NSW & Far Western Local Health Districts:

Clint Gibbs, Health Promotion Officer with Population Health in Dubbo, has shared their WNTD campaign with us. They established a media campaign encouraging people to think about the effects of ETS. See their media release: "Health messages to make your home and car smoke free".

They also produced 2 great radio ads as part of the campaign. You can listen to these ads here:

• Ad1 - "ETS and kids" (mp3 - 591kb)
• Ad2 - "Please smoke outside" (mp3 - 592kb).

"No Smokes North Coast" Project

The UNSW “No Smokes North Coast” program was launched with Dr Tom Calma (National Coordinator, Tackling Indigenous Smoking) on Monday 30 May in Coffs Harbour. The project, run by the University of New South Wales and the Mid North Coast Division of General Practice, seeks to develop the necessary skills, resources and support for indigenous communities in reducing smoking in the area. This is very important as the Mid and North Coast of NSW currently has the highest prevalence of Indigenous smokers in NSW, reported at 59.5%.

The objectives of the No Smokes North Coast program are to:

• Support a smoke-free culture in Indigenous communities and disseminate locally made smoke-free messages
• Raise awareness of the harms of smoking and burden of disease associated with smoking in Indigenous communities
• Support Indigenous smokers to quit smoking and stay quit
• Reduce exposure of babies and children to parental smoking

The WHO's focus for WNTD 2011

This year the World Health Organization (WHO) selected "The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC)" as the theme. For more information go to the WHO’s WNTD 2011 website or download their flyer here. They also made this cool video for World No Tobacco Day 2011 on YouTube.