Smoking in cars with kids. That’s just one of the things the provincial government is cracking down on in a new three-year strategy to reduce tobacco use.

Minister of Health, Fred Horne, says it’s clear, far too many young Albertans are smoking and don’t understand the risks associated.

“You know, I’m often asked as Minister of Health what keeps me awake at nights and as statistic that I’m not sure everyone fully appreciates but that I recently became aware of, is that this is the first generation of children in Canada to have a lower life expectancy than the generation that proceeded them,” he says.

Horne adds, the province has seen a reduction in smoking rates in the last 10 years to 19 per cent in 2010, down from 25 per cent in 2001 and the regulations have been introduced to protect non-smokers and children from the harms of tobacco.

As part of the strategy, the government plans to introduce laws to prohibit the sale of cigarettes to children and restrict the sale of flavoured tobacco.
    
There will also be an extra $500,000 allotted for a social media campaign on the dangers of smoking.

The funding for the project comes from the Alberta Health Services budget.