Activities:

Before viewing
Tell the students they are going to see one of a series of short films focusing on issues around smoking and tobacco control.

After viewing

Key questions

a) What key message/s was the film trying to get across?
b) What techniques were employed to do this?
c) How successful did individuals feel this was?
d) What impact had the film made on them personally?

You might want the students to view the film again before looking at the questions below. Allow them sight of the questions before viewing.

a) How do you feel about the position Nigel and Chris find themselves in?
b) What are the problems they face in the future?
c) If you didn’t know anything about these people and met them socially or in a work situation, how would you react?
d) Why do some people find it easy to ignore the dangers of smoking?

Activity
Aim to get students to think about what’s actually happening when tobacco is set alight and the smoke taken into the body. First establish what they know about tobacco and what happens when it burns. (see background information)

In groups, or as a class, ask them to visualise the smoke journey from first lighting up to finally inhaling. Create a picture either visually, in note form or in a diagram, building up as much information as is relevant to the students’ ability.

Brainstorm the short-term effects of smoking they know about and try to get them to make the connection between these and the smoke journey. Then do the same for long-term effects.