Tobacco-Free Sports and Recreation Policies

Tobacco-Free Sports and Recreation Policies
Findings
Rationale for TFSR Policy Development
This Case Study team developed a TFSR policy for a range of reasons. Two PHU informants
described how this TFSR policy stemmed from a TCAN initiative that was primarily interested in
smoke-free outdoor spaces, but staff felt that the appetite for such by-laws was not very strong
in the community. The focus on youth and tobacco-free sport and recreation activities within a
key major sporting team in the community was considered a launching point for outdoor by-law
development.
We [PHU] just did a, a large kind of campaign with them [team name]and part of my
job was to kind of support that and really kind of take it to other kind of areas so
we used the [team name] as kind of a, you know like a, a champion of the
community and, and with the youth that I was working with at the time [Youth
Action Alliance: YAA] we really kind of took you know here look at these older guys
and we kind of brought them to kind of the younger hockey teams to do some role
modeling and, to help discussion and, really used it as a tool to further you know
some work on public policy in terms of our smoke-free outdoor spaces bylaw. (PHU
Key Informant)
Players shared a wide range of reasons why the team adopted a TFSR policy that included the
hockey organization’s interests in maintaining healthy players and being solid role models for
children and youth in the community:
[TFSR policy] keeps our team clean and able to focus on hockey. (Player)
P1: Also for that like it doesn’t lead on to other things and then like the team does
it outside of the rink and then people start finding out and then the team gets a
bad rep.
P2: I feel like they put it in place cause they want to like eliminate it like entirely so
if the policy is there and then if they want to like get rid of it entirely.
P3: Like he was saying it also it’s a representation on not just yourself but the
organization as well and the community. If you’re going to away games and you
know like you’re outside at an away game and you know everybody’s smoking a
cigarette after or before the game it, it reflects poorly on the coaching staff and like
the [Team name] in general and I know a lot of teams they want to keep their
organizations as one of the highest organizations possible in the league so in any
league that you’re in.
Ontario Tobacco Research Unit 41