One Blog for the Kids!

Monday, June 1, 2009

Sending youth anti-smoke signals

How about jammin' n rockin' with the youth – for an MP personnel? Now that's something!

----------

TO ENCOURAGE the youth to adopt a smoke-free lifestyle, the Health Promotion Board (HPB) held a three-day event over the weekend, in line with World No Tobacco Day.

Activities to demonstrate how a smoke-free lifestyle can be hip and cool included a freestyle football demonstration, hip hop dance and guitar hero competitions.

To conclude the event, HPB staged a rock concert titled "Rockin' without Smokin'" at Plaza Singapura Open Plaza yesterday.

According to the National Health Surveillance Survey in 2007, the average age at which both male and female smokers started experimenting with cigarettes was 16 years.

A survey last year by the HPB also showed that 9 per cent of young people aged13 to 16 smoked and nearly one in five teenagers in Singapore thought that smoking is not harmful.

Asked whether anti-smoking campaigns are an effective way to bring down the figures, Deputy Director of the HPB's Youth Health Division V Prema said: "Campaigns are just one form of reaching out to the youth. We've got other measures (such as) peer-led approaches, so there are different ways of going out to them."

The Student Health Survey 2006 found that peer influence is a significant factor for smokers, with 95 per cent of youth smokers having close friends who smoked.

From TODAYOnline.com –Singapore News, Monday, 01-Jun-2009; see the source article here.

Sending youth anti-smoke signals

How about jammin' n rockin' with the youth – for an MP personnel? Now that's something!

----------

TO ENCOURAGE the youth to adopt a smoke-free lifestyle, the Health Promotion Board (HPB) held a three-day event over the weekend, in line with World No Tobacco Day.

Activities to demonstrate how a smoke-free lifestyle can be hip and cool included a freestyle football demonstration, hip hop dance and guitar hero competitions.

To conclude the event, HPB staged a rock concert titled "Rockin' without Smokin'" at Plaza Singapura Open Plaza yesterday.

According to the National Health Surveillance Survey in 2007, the average age at which both male and female smokers started experimenting with cigarettes was 16 years.

A survey last year by the HPB also showed that 9 per cent of young people aged13 to 16 smoked and nearly one in five teenagers in Singapore thought that smoking is not harmful.

The Student Health Survey 2006 found that peer influence is a significant factor for smokers, with 95 per cent of youth smokers having close friends who smoked.

From TODAYOnline.com –Singapore News, Monday, 01-Jun-2009; see the source article here.

Calculator for carbon footprint

On being environment-friendly, this is something… might start young as well to save the Earth…

----------

IF YOU don't know how much carbon emissions your daily activities add to the atmosphere, you can now work that out.

This is with Singapore's first carbon footprint online calculator, which was launched yesterday.

At www.mycarbonfootprint.sg, you will be asked questions such as "How do you get to school or to work?" or "Do you use hot water when you shower?" — and your carbon emissions will be calculated for you.

Chairman of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, Mr Simon Tay, who was the guest-of-honour at the launch, said climate change is a problem that "we all contribute to and that we do not really know how to address".

This is why individuals and not just governments must be involved in fighting it, he said.

Welcoming the launch of a personal carbon footprint calculator, he urged students and youth to impact their own family's lifestyles.

Recounting how his wife and 11-year-old son have influenced him to be a better environmentalist — not just as a policy issue but in everyday practice — he said they have implemented recycling thoroughly, and have kept their household bills for electricity and water low at under $100 per month. His family even asked for a hybrid car.

The carbon footprint calculator project was a collaboration between Hemispheres Foundation and Singapore Polytechnic.

President and Founder of Hemispheres Foundation, Ms Ann Phua, explained: "It gives an alert as to how your lifestyle habits have made an impact on the carbon emissions that you have created."

The Carbon Footprint Calculator was launched at the Singapore Science Centre in conjunction with the "Actions for Earth Carbon Footprint Challenge".

This drew more than 800 students who pledged to reduce carbon emission through a change in their lifestyle. The event commemorates the World Environment Day which falls on June 5. 938LIVE

From TODAYOnline.com, Monday, 01-Jun-2009; see the source article here.