Health promotion staff were on hand in the atrium at Forth Valley Royal Hospital to support a campaign designed to drive home the harm caused by second hand smoke. Aimed particularly at protecting children, visitors were invited to step into a mock living room which appeared completely smoke free. They were then given a sticker to place on their chest which, when viewed through a special tablet, projected an image onto a TV screen showing their lungs filling up with smoke.
Victoria Cochran from Healthier Scotland explained that the Scottish Government campaign was aimed at families. “It’s very interactive and a new and different way to approach smokers and make them think about the fact that harmful chemicals from second-hand smoke can linger for five hours after the visible smoke has disappeared.”
Pictured here are cousins Douglas Fleming (8) and Laurie Coupland (6) who were among the many people who stopped at the display to find out more. They learned that because children breathe faster than adults they would take in more of the harmful chemicals associated with smoking.
Scotland recently became the first country in the world to set a target of reducing the proportion of children in Scotland exposed to second-hand smoke in the home from 12 per cent to six per cent by 2020.
