D-MYST spreads smokefree message

February 24, 2006

An international smoking awareness campaign will receive its only UK support from Liverpool next week.

D-MYST (Direct Movement by the Youth SmokeFree Team) will be taking part in SmokeFree Movies Day of International Action next Tuesday, as part of their media campaign 'You are a target'.

Group members have sent photographs to New York to be part of a worldwide display: they show themselves with family members holding plaques expressing their concerns about smoking in movies and are calling on the media corporations who own and control Hollywood to stop promoting smoking in youth rated movies.

The day, supported by the World Health Organisation, aims to raise awareness and unite young people and health advocates in different countries who are demanding that the movie industry stop delivering youths to the tobacco industry by glamorizing and promoting smoking, luring young people into a lifetime of addiction, disease and early death.

Gina McDaid, Project Co-ordinator said: "As soon as we were aware of the day we immediately wanted to be a part of it. It looks at issues which we are dealing within our local campaign but on a much larger scale".

A quote sent to New York with a photograph from DMYST member Sean Goodman said: "Smoking in youth rated movies is just not on! It never adds to a storyline and we know it's the tobacco industries underhand attempts to make smoking look cool and to get us hooked. We don't want it and the movies don't need it."

A Liverpool mother, Paula Byrne said: "Getting smoking out of youth related movies would be one more step in the long battle to stop smoking being seen as an acceptable or even a desirable habit".

As part of the day we are also launching a new movie review feature of our website but instead of the usual storyline and actor line up we will be letting people know just how much smoking really is shown in films".

Log onto www.d-myst.info for more information on the group and how to get involved. You can win an all expenses paid trip for two to see Robbie Williams in concert in a city which has already gone smokefree - Dublin by logging on.