Peter Yendall, Health Canada, workplace, Jeanne Mance Bldg, 11th floor, Room B1102, Tunney's pasture, Ottawa, ON K1A 0K9, Canada, 613-946-8107, peter_yendall@hc-sc.gc.ca and Dawn A Hachey, Health Canada - Tobacco Control Programme, workplace, 6th floor, MacDonald Bldg, 123 Slater St., Ottawa, ON K1A 0K9, Canada.

In 2001 the Government of Canada launched the Federal Tobacco Control Strategy (FTCS), included in this was a well-funded social marketing campaign. There are four mutually reinforcing components to the FTCS: protection, prevention, cessation and harm reduction. A major objective of this strategy is reducing exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). We are currently in year three of a five-year program. The ETS strategy is a series of integrated campaigns designed to inform Canadians of the health effects of ETS and what they could do to protect themselves and others from it. Health Canada’s social marketing campaigns focused on ETS in the home, workplace, and youth. The focus for this presentation will be the workplace campaign. Over 11 million Canadians do not have a completely smoke-free workplace. Health Canada’s ETS workplace campaign featured Heather Crowe, a 57-year old waitress who worked for 40 years in the hospitality industry. She has never smoked yet she is dying of lung cancer from exposure to ETS. The campaign which started in October 2002 consisted of television, print, cinema and out-of-home ads featuring Heather Crowe. The workplace campaign was extremely successful getting the message to 61% of Canadians that ETS kills. This ad received a significant amount of earned media. Two months after the ad stopped airing 53% of adults and 38% of youth recalled the ad while 67% of adults and 73% of youth got the message that ETS kills. Heather Crowe continues to be an advocate for smoke-free bylaws across Canada.

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