The issue of smoking is widely discussed and there are thousands
of provisions, help-lines and the NHS have spent billions of
pounds on treatment of smoking related illness and helping those
who smoke quit. The question remains as to whether we can
actually prevent people from smoking? As with so many other
things in the social and health education sector, I believe it
has to do with the way in which it is approached in classroom
discussions. For many years, particularly when I was at school,
smoking was a ‘cool’ thing to do, a rebellious act that would
leave one both exhilarated and nervous at the prospect of
getting caught. I never really got roped in to this peer
pressurised taboo but I frequently saw it happen in and around
school and it was widely talked about amongst my peers. It would
appear now, that young people are far more aware and find it
less and less of an ‘exciting’ thing to do. The truth remains of
course that if you present something to a young person and tell
them not to do it, a voice in t