• Home
• Shop
• TV listings
• Programme Notes
• Interactive Resources
• Contact us

Aims:

To raise awareness of:

• just how addictive cigarette smoking really is
• ways people rationalise the health risks of smoking
• the impact on health and well-being of smoking-related cancers
• the social and emotional consequences for people diagnosed with such cancers

Synopsis:

The Quit series of five programmes has been designed to raise awareness of a range of issues surrounding cigarette smoking and legal controls on the use of tobacco. Using personal testimonies, the audience is introduced to the impact smoking has on people’s health and lifestyle. Smokers and non-smokers alike discuss how addiction to cigarettes has influenced their lives or those of their families. The series also focuses on how tobacco companies use marketing and advertising techniques to influence people’s smoking behaviour.

Programme 1: A Hole in my Neck*
Nigel and Chris are two middle-aged men who have smoked since their teens. In this programme, they discuss how they felt about being diagnosed as suffering from smoking-related cancers, and share their thoughts about smoking and hopes for the future.

*Students should be warned that this film contains several short sequences showing surgical procedures.

00.00 – 04.40
Nigel smoked for twenty years without giving it much thought. He’s been diagnosed with cancer of the throat caused by smoking and has had to have his larynx removed. He now speaks through a hole in his neck. Chris has smoked since his teens. Most of his mates smoked and it was the macho thing to do. Some gave up but he didn’t and now finds he has cancer of the tongue and neck caused by smoking. Both men tell their stories, talk about how they feel and discuss the impact of their conditions on their lives. A surgeon explains the technicalities of the operations used to remove the different kinds of cancer.

Curriculum Relevance:

This programme has a major PSHE and citizenship focus with opportunities for cross-curricular work involving human biology, religious and moral education, English, drama and art. It has a locus in whole-school approaches to health and community development.

England & Wales

PSHE and Citizenship: Key Stage 4
National Healthy Schools Standard for Citizenship: Key Stage 4

Northern Ireland

Personal and Social Education Guidance for Key Stages 3 and 4
Social and Environmental Studies: Health and Drugs Education

Teachers should be aware of relevant guidelines for Key Stage 4 emerging from the Civic, Social and Political Education programme of study in the revised NI curriculum, which aims to prepare young people for participation in:

• a culturally diverse and inclusive society (social values)
• a fair and just society (civic values)
• democratic society (political values)

Scotland

Scottish Executive: Guidance on Health Education, PSD, and Citizenship – middle to upper secondary stages.

Background Information:

Is nicotine really very addictive?
Nicotine is the drug in tobacco that causes addiction. It is found in all tobacco products such as cigarettes, pipe tobacco, chewing tobacco and cigars. When a user is addicted to nicotine they feel as if they need the substance to function normally. Nicotine reaches the brain in about 10 seconds.

Immediate effects of nicotine
The effect of nicotine on the brain and central nervous system immediately causes the following: increase in blood pressure; increase in heart rate; thickening of blood; narrowing of arteries; decrease in skin temperature; increase in respiration; stimulation of the central nervous system; vomiting and diarrhoea.

Long-term effects of smoking
As well as nicotine, smoke from tobacco also contains tar which is damaging to the mouth, throat and lungs, a range of harmful chemicals and several carcinogens. The long-term effects of smoking are: high blood pressure; blockage of blood vessels; depletion of the body’s stores of vitamin C; reduction in effectiveness of the immune system; cancer of the mouth, throat and lungs; cancer of the upper respiratory tract, bronchitis and/or emphysema; stomach ulcers; weight loss; dryness and wrinkling of the skin; production of abnormal sperm in males.

What are the immediate health effects on young smokers?
Young people who smoke are from two to six times more susceptible to coughs and increased phlegm, wheeziness and shortness of breath than those who do not smoke. The earlier they start to smoke and the longer they persist in the habit the more likely they are to die prematurely as a result. A recent US survey found that smoking during teenage years causes permanent genetic changes in the lungs, increasing the risk of lung cancer even if the smoker subsequently stops.

Trends in smoking-related cancers

• In 1995 there were 45,000 cancer deaths in the UK attributable to smoking, which was approximately a third of all cancer deaths in that year.
• In 1999, 22% of all cancer deaths were lung cancer, making it the most common form of cancer.
• Over 80% of all lung cancer deaths are caused by smoking.
• Over 90% of cancers of the mouth and throat are caused by tobacco.

Tobacco also plays a role in oesophageal cancer and a range of other cancers of organs in the body. Check out the ASH website under links for further information.

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.

Links:

This web page contains links to other websites that are neither controlled nor maintained by Channel 4 Television. Channel 4 Television is not responsible for the content of these sites and does not necessarily endorse the material on them.

www.cancerresearchuk.org

Has a good general section on cancer, information on developments in scientific understanding and research, and cancer help.

www.bhf.org.uk

British Heart Foundation website gives information on lifestyle risks which can contribute to heart disease. Smoking is a major risk factor.

www.ash.org.uk

Website of the campaign group Action on Smoking and Health (ASH). Contains sections on all aspects of tobacco control including passive smoking. Has wide-ranging statistics and summaries of recent research.

Quit: Programme 1: A Hole in my Neck
Credits:

Produced and directed by Emma Wakefield