Smoking tobacco remains the leading cause of cancer in Canada. This is also the most preventable cause of cancer. With the relatively new introduction and high use of e-cigarettes among young people, new challenges have emerged in cancer prevention and tobacco control efforts.
This is why Dr Laura Struik, a Canadian Cancer Society Emerging Scholar Award recipient and an expert in nicotine use in youth, is leading research that puts young people at the centre of the work. Her team is guiding the development and implementation of a new tobacco control strategy focused on vaping, with the goal of reducing cancer risk among youth and young adults.
In partnership with young people, Indigenous communities, health authorities and educators, Dr Struik’s team is working toward enhancing prevention, policy measures around youth vaping and smoking cessation programs to include vaping.
A key part of Dr Struik’s work is a youth-driven approach, where her projects engage young people as collaborators, trainees and co-researchers to guide the development of tools and strategies to address youth vaping. With young researchers driving work that reflects the real contexts of youth vaping, it may better resonate with the young people it is meant to support.
“The rapidly evolving nature of tobacco use, especially among younger demographics, requires urgent and focused attention, which this funding enables,” Dr Struik says.
Results from Dr Struik’s projects have brought significant awareness among youth, the general public and community partners such as health authorities, schools and clinical services about nicotine use among young people and how to support them with not using, reducing or quitting.
“I hope to contribute meaningful evidence for revising the Federal Tobacco Control Strategy and reach the 2035 goal of less than 5% of tobacco use across our nation,” Dr Struik says. “Based on current statistics, this could reduce cancer-related morbidity and mortality rates associated with tobacco use by more than 65%. For example, reducing tobacco-related cancer deaths from approximately 25,000 to 8,000 annually.”
Help change the future of tobacco-related cancer
May 31 marks World No Tobacco Day, a global call for a tobacco and nicotine-free future for the next generation. This year’s campaign highlights how the tobacco and nicotine industry target children and adolescents, and what people can do to protect their right to health and future generations. The goal on World No Tobacco Day is to raise awareness, advocate for stronger policies to protect youth, prevent addiction and reduce demand.
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