January 21, 2012 - Today, wrapping up National Non-Smoking Week, local youth crashed the food court at Intercity Shopping Centre with a flash mob to raise awareness about the harms of flavoured tobacco products. Youth danced while wearing colourful morph suits that represented the flavours put into tobacco products and displayed tobacco-related statistics to onlookers. The event is part of the Flavour…GONE campaign which seeks a government ban on all flavoured tobacco products in Canada.

"Enough is enough when it comes to tobacco industry marketing tactics," said Thunder Bay spokesperson Mat Lesnick, youth advocate and member of Flavour…GONE. "We are tired of being a target of the tobacco industry and it is time we saw a total ban on all existing and future flavoured tobacco products in Canada."

The Flavour…GONE campaign, launched in 2008, was instrumental in the creation of the Cracking Down on Tobacco Marketing Aimed at Youth Act which came into effect in 2010. The Act bans cigarillos (filtered mini-cigars) everywhere in Canada and includes other tobacco control measures. However, the dangers that flavoured tobacco present to Canadian youth are amplified by the fact these products do not require warning labels like cigarettes do, and flavoured chew and spit tobacco are still on the market.

"Tobacco industry products are packaged more and more to look like candy, smell like candy and taste like candy," adds Lesnick. "Despite their candy qualities, it needs to be understood that all tobacco products are dangerous and highly addictive, and flavours can’t mask that."

Flavour…GONE is encouraging all Canadian youth, parents and the federal government to learn more about the seriousness of flavoured tobacco and to support legislation that removes flavoured tobacco products from Canadian shelves. To find out how you can support Flavour…GONE visit, www.flavourgone.ca or learn more about National Non-Smoking Week, please visit www.nnsw.ca

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