Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds was this year’s theme at the U of T Health Fair on Wednesday, February 11. Littered in the front lobby of the Bahen Centre, exhibitors taught passing students how to achieve optimal health and safety. “It’s good the fair is right at the door so everybody passes and they can actually look at the booths and learn something,” commented second year electrical engineering student Lisa.
The Leave The Pack Behind (LTPB) Campaign booth made a big impression at the fair. “We don’t pressure people to quit smoking,” said Lee Nesseth, communications team leader. “We offer resources to people who want to quit.”
Stop-smoking student kits were available to help students understand why they began smoking and are continuing to smoke. The kits contain magnets, candy, gum, toothpicks, rubber bands, a press on tattoo, an LTPB pamphlet, and a stress booklet. “Stress is a really big problem. That’s one of the main reasons for smoking,” insisted Nesseth.
An anonymous student at the fair agreed: “The stress factor of university, plus the stress factor of parents at home, has caused me to take up smoking again since I began smoking in high school.”
The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario booth, focusing on nutrition, physical activity and smoking, included a poster of a girl showing the negative effects of tobacco smoke: wrinkles, skin damage, throat cancer, lung disease, and mouth cancer. The poster shocked Sandip, a first-year pharmacy student. “You realize it does bad things to you, but just to see it, it’s different.”
At the back-pack booth, Pam Biolo, an RN at the health service, noticed numerous back-pack wearing mistakes among the passing students. “Everyone is wearing them too low. The top of your back pack is supposed to be at the base of your skull and the bottom of your back pack should be 2 inches above your waist,” demonstrated Biolo on first-year computer science student, Kelvin. “I’m always carying around really heavy things, and I didn’t know it was really bad for my back,” he said.
The Center for Addiction and Mental Health challenged myths surrounding alcohol. The myth of coffee, food and a cold shower for treating a hangover was debunked; only time allows alcohol to leave the system. More booths included information on safe sex, street safety, positive space awareness, and facts on drugs.
