Tobacco Reduction Programs and Resources

Western Health can support communities interested in any of the programs or resources listed below. The Wellness Facilitator can assist groups with applying for funding opportunities and offer other support as needed. If you are interested or have any questions, please contact the Regional Health Educator (709-784-5355) or contact a Wellness Facilitator in your area.

  • Bonne Bay and Area; Port Saunders and Area:
  • Bay of Islands and Area; Deer Lake, White Bay South and Area:
  • Port aux Basques and Area; Burgeo, Ramea and Area; Bay St. George and Area:


Go Healthy with Ticker Tom Program
The Go Healthy with Ticker Tom Program is a fun and interactive program designed to get healthy living messages to children and youth ages 6 - 12 enrolled in summer recreation programs. The goal of the program is to create awareness in children and youth of the key healthy living messages: eat healthy, be active, and stay smoke-free.  The program is put into action with the help of Ticker Tom... a cat with some cool healthy living messages to share!

Recreation leaders can receive training (1.5 hours) on how to use this program to support their community program(s). This program includes facilitator manual, resource bin, promotional items, the Ticker Tom puppet and scripts.

Ticker Tom Puppet
The Ticker Tom Puppet is an interactive way to deliver health messages to young audiences. Suitable for use at Family Resource Centres, schools, lifestyle clinics, health fairs and other community settings. Ticker Tom Talks cover key messages on healthy eating, physical activity and being smoke-free.

•          The dialogue is designed for two people (One as Ticker Tom and one other leader).

•           Questions are asked to children in the audience.

•          The puppet show ends with a physical activity break.

Tobacco Exposé Kit   
The Tobacco Exposé Kit is a collection of educational activities and lesson plans for tobacco education for grades 4 - 9, with some opportunity for extension into high school. Community Health Nurses are the intended facilitators.

Lung Comparison Kit
This visual resource features simulated smoker’s lungs and healthy lungs mounted side-by-side. When the lungs are inflated with bellows, the audience can see how lung function is affected by smoking cigarettes. The audience can feel the smoker’s lungs, which feature palpable tumors, as a reminder that smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer.

The Benefits of Quitting Display
Two displays are available for use as a set. Suitable for general audiences in public settings, the messages positively reinforce the benefits of quitting and promote the many services provided by the Newfoundland and Labrador Smokers’ Helpline.

Death of a Lung
This tabletop display graphically reveals the inner lung damage caused by smoking. The display includes preserved samples of healthy pink lung tissue, an emphysematous lung with ruptured air sacs, and a lung with cancerous tumors. This display is useful for raising awareness of the dangers of smoking and for smoking cessation programs. 

Jar of Tar
Inside this sealed, shatterproof jar is a representation of the amount of tar that would be consumed by a person who smoked a pack of cigarettes a day for a year. Tar from cigarettes is what leads to blackening of the lung tissue over time, contributes to coughs and the development of many respiratory problems.

Educational Games: Jeopardy and Who Wants to be a Millionaire
Modelling popular television shows such as Jeopardy and Who Wants to be a Millionaire, groups can learn about many aspects of tobacco use.

Presentations, Displays & Posters
Additional tobacco reduction resources including presentations, displays and posters are available for use with different age groups in different settings.