Jenny and the Bear
An interactive & fun way to highlight risks of second-hand smoke for children
Protect your family from the harms of second-hand smoke
Second-hand smoke is harmful to everyone’s health, even pets, but it’s especially harmful to babies, children and pregnant women.
Jenny and the Bear is a fun and interactive story for primary one children that raises awareness of the dangers of second-hand smoke.
The video highlights the risk of children’s exposure to second-hand smoke through an engaging story of a little girl and her teddy, as well as what parents/carers can do to ensure their children aren’t exposed to its harmful effects.
The Quit Your Way Team has also introduced a Jenny and the Bear colouring in sheet to print at home and children can pick their favourite colours to colour it in!
Watch video on YouTube.
Small steps we can take to reduce harm from exposure to second-hand smoke
Although the smoke you can see disappears quickly, the particles are so small that 85% of them are invisible and odourless. The levels of invisible but harmful toxins in the air can be high, up-to 5 hours afterwards. There are small steps you can take to reduce harm from exposure to second-hand smoke:
- Smoking outside won’t completely protect our family – because some of the smoke settles on our clothes and is released back into the air when back inside – but it will reduce the risk.
- Wash your hands after smoking.
- Consider stopping smoking in the car. Please be aware that it is illegal to smoke in a car with children under the age of 18.
- You could also consider Nicotine Replacement Therapy such as gum, patches or lozenges, our team provide these free.Â
For more information on these steps visit Take it right outside. We can reduce the amount of smoke our family is exposed to by following the above steps, but quitting smoking is the best option for our families health and wellbeing.
The Jenny and the Bear story was developed as an interactive and fun way to support teachers to highlight the risks of second-hand smoke.
Children are especially vulnerable to second-hand smoke as their lungs and immune systems are still developing making them breathe faster; therefore, they inhale more toxic chemicals from tobacco smoke than adults.
We hope children enjoy these new resources which they can use over the school holidays too! We’re committed to continuing and developing initiatives that work with families to reduce the barriers they face to creating a smoke-free home and car.
More info or support to quit smoking
Quit Your Way can be contacted Monday – Friday from 9am until 5pm.
For more information, call 0800 84 84 84 or visit NHS Inform’s Quit Your Way website.
You can now use our ‘Click to be Contacted’ service, select your local or nearest area, leave your name, preferred contact method, and we will be in touch with you.
You can also visit your local Community Pharmacy for free stop smoking support. Find your nearest community pharmacy.
