All Fire, No Smoke on Chatham-Kent Sports Fields
Tobacco - Photo by Hans Kim
If you get asked to put out your cigarette or remove your chewing tobacco while watching a soccer or baseball game this season in Chatham-Kent, it’s likely because you’re standing in a tobacco free zone. As least, that’s a process and standard the Chatham-Kent Public Health Unit is hoping more Chatham-Kent sports organizations will soon adopt.
For the last few years, the Chatham-Kent Public Health Unit has been pomoting their Tobacco Free Sports and Recreation program, in conjunction with the province wide Play, Live, Be Tobacco Free initiative. Now, the Health Unit is hoping to keep the fire burning in more local athletes on the field, by doing away with the smoke,
“The ultimate goal would be for all sports teams in Chatham-Kent to have a tobacco free policy to help prevent youth from starting to use tobacco products, and to support them in their effort to quit,” said Chatham-Kent’s Tobacco Control Coordinator Michelle Bogaert. “Ultimately, that policy would include athletes, staff, and spectators.”
Currently, several Chatham-Kent sports organizations have adopted tobacco free programs that keep athletes, parents, and spectators smoke and tobacco free while attending and participating in local sporting events. These organizations currently span across the Municipality of Chatham-Kent from the Blenheim Community Soccer League, to the Chatham Jr. Maroons and Chatham-Kent Cougars, and the Dresden Skating Club, to name a few.
Bogaert wants every sports organization in Chatham-Kent to know that the Public Health Unit will support teams, clubs, and athletes from the early design, to the implementation and enforcement of their new tobacco free initiatives, including, a potential for funding in the future,
“We have a toolkit which they can take it and run with it. It gives the organizations all the background information they’ll need to develop and enforce their programs. In Blenheim for example, the kids enforce the policies themselves. Sometimes, there’s even an opportunity for funding.”
The Blenheim Community Soccer League is touted as one of Chatham-Kent’s success stories in the Live, Play, Be Tobacco Free program. In Blenheim, they have Youth Tobacco Enforcement Officers who volunteer at each game to ensure that all players, coaches, and spectators remain tobacco free while at the soccer field.
This program is not only aiming to avoid cigarettes, it also targets chewing tobacco which has become a major problem locally in sports such as hockey, lacrosse, and baseball.
When it comes to performing on the ice, field or court, tobacco is proven to be detrimental, something Bogaert says young athletes should be aware of, “If they want to excel in sports and life, they need to make healthy choices: being tobacco free, eating a balanced diet, and staying active away from sport.”
In essence, although success on the playing field is important to Bogaert and her team at the Chatham-Kent Public Health Unit, it is the overall health and wellness of Chatham-Kent youth that is the driving force behind their efforts to make all sports and recreation within Chatham-Kent tobacco free,
“We want Chatham-Kent to be a healthier place, to live and play, and to set examples for other communities. Not just communities, but athletes and teams from across Ontario.”