Going global!

Last weekend New York based anti-tobacco industry youth advocacy group Reality Check held a two day event at Niagara Falls to celebrate the International Week of Action Against Smoking in Movies in conjunction with some Canadian youth groups who met across the border in Niagara falls Canada. 

On Saturday the groups came together with another youth advocacy group from Nigeria and invited D-MYST to take part in an international Skype conference call where each group spoke about the campaigning that they had done in their country regarding smoking in movies and D-MYST shared their SmokeOff campaign and the activity they have carried out in Liverpool with regards to smoking in the media.

It was a really great and unique opportunity for D-MYST to showcase their work internationally to other like minded young people and of great interest to hear what other groups are planning around the world!

We are so excited as we have been asked to take part in an international social media party this weekend.

There is a two day event to be held at Niagara Falls to celebrate the International Week of Action Against Smoking in Youth Rated Movies in conjunction with some American and Canadian youth groups who will be meeting across the border in Niagara falls Canada.  We are going to take part in an international SKYPE conference call with the young people from Canada, US, and also Nigeria to do a joint activity together via the call.   

It is a great way to link in with other like minded groups across the world and we are looking forward to sharing ideas meeting new friends!

Launch of our new shisha campaign

Today we launched our new shisha campaign in Liverpool City Centre to raise awareness of the dangers of smoking shisha.

Smoking flavoured shisha tobacco using Hookah waterpipes has become increasingly popular in Liverpool.  It's also particularly prevalent in middle eastern communities where it is a traditional past time.

However many people don't realise that smoking flavoured shisha in a waterpipe is harmful at all, but shisha is a tobacco, it does contain nicotine and it's extremely harmful to health potentially leading to everything from heart disease to cancer. Smoking shisha with a Hookah pipe is about 100 times more harmful than one cigarette.

Hookah pipes are also known to carry additional risks as the mouthpieces aren't cleaned often and as a result users can catch the like of herpes and tuberculosis simply buy using a waterpipe.

Hookah pipes and smoking shisha has become particularly popular in the Liverpool night scene and bar culture, however smoking shisha is illegal in enclosed or substantially enclosed public spaces and if caught you can face a fine of between £50 and £200.

Today was great as lots of people came over to talk to us and many didn't realise the dangers of smoking shisha. Lots of parents and their children were very interested in our literature!