Over the last six months, classes in 37 state schools, along with their teachers, made a commitment to stop smoking. They also dedicated themselves to raising awareness of the harmful effects of smoking.

This pilot project involved a high level of trust and comradeship between the students, explained Health Promotion Director Mario Spiteri. The students monitored their own, and their companions’, smoking or non-smoking behaviour and reported to their teacher once a week. Every month, they filled in postcards with their feedback on the smoking or non-smoking behaviour and sent them to the Health Promotion Department.

Based on this information, the class from Luigi Preziosi School was chosen as the overall winner. They proved themselves to be the class that made the biggest effort and produced the best results, explained Health Promotion Officer Elaine Caruana.

She said the 2002 Health Behaviour Survey shows that 24.9 per cent of 11- to 15-year-old girls smoke. This is a significant increase compared with the results gathered in the 2000 survey, she said. Smoking, unfortunately still has a glamorous aura, said Dr Spiteri. This probably explains why more woman than men are taking up the bad habit.

Nothing can be gained from smoking, he stressed, and the only thing one can get is a number of varied and horrible diseases. Dr Spiteri also wanted to make it clear that sickness derived from smoking does not only effect people at an advanced age.

Education Director Raymond Camilleri said he hoped that the students would continue along the good path they had taken and not fall off the bandwagon.

He said they must not only stick to their non-smoking commitment, but must also spread the word to others. It is important to be aware at a young age of the damage smoking causes, before its too late, he continued.

The young people of today must safeguard their health because by doing so they will be ensuring a higher quality of life for future generations, he explained.

As the winning class, the students were given prizes by the project’s sponsors. Each of them received a Clearasil gift pack from Chemimart, a Lm5 voucher from Clamus Centre and a book from the Klabb Kotba Maltin. The Smokefree Class Competition has been carried out at a European level since 1997. The number of participants has been on the rise and in the 2001-2002 scholastic year, 15 European countries

participated.

Over the last six months, classes in 37 state schools, along with their teachers, made a commitment to stop smoking. They also dedicated themselves to raising awareness of the harmful effects of smoking.

This pilot project involved a high level of trust and comradeship between the students, explained Health Promotion Director Mario Spiteri. The students monitored their own, and their companions’, smoking or non-smoking behaviour and reported to their teacher once a week. Every month, they filled in postcards with their feedback on the smoking or non-smoking behaviour and sent them to the Health Promotion Department.

Based on this information, the class from Luigi Preziosi School was chosen as the overall winner. They proved themselves to be the class that made the biggest effort and produced the best results, explained Health Promotion Officer Elaine Caruana.

She said the 2002 Health Behaviour Survey shows that 24.9 per cent of 11- to 15-year-old girls smoke. This is a significant increase compared with the results gathered in the 2000 survey, she said. Smoking, unfortunately still has a glamorous aura, said Dr Spiteri. This probably explains why more woman than men are taking up the bad habit.

Nothing can be gained from smoking, he stressed, and the only thing one can get is a number of varied and horrible diseases. Dr Spiteri also wanted to make it clear that sickness derived from smoking does not only effect people at an advanced age.

Education Director Raymond Camilleri said he hoped that the students would continue along the good path they had taken and not fall off the bandwagon.

He said they must not only stick to their non-smoking commitment, but must also spread the word to others. It is important to be aware at a young age of the damage smoking causes, before its too late, he continued.

The young people of today must safeguard their health because by doing so they will be ensuring a higher quality of life for future generations, he explained.

As the winning class, the students were given prizes by the project’s sponsors. Each of them received a Clearasil gift pack from Chemimart, a Lm5 voucher from Clamus Centre and a book from the Klabb Kotba Maltin. The Smokefree Class Competition has been carried out at a European level since 1997. The number of participants has been on the rise and in the 2001-2002 scholastic year, 15 European countries

participated.