If a New Year’s resolution didn’t work for you, the Great Canadian Smoke Out could be your next ticket to a tobacco-free life.

TRU’s respiratory therapy students are organizing a local kick-off event to a campaign encouraging everyone — and post-secondary students in particular — to quit and quit for good.

“It’s a provincial thing many campuses are doing,” said AJ Rowlands, one of the students. “It is a student initiative, but it’s also something we’ve received a grant to do.”

The event comes as B.C.’s smoking cessation program gathers momentum in its second year. This week, Jan. 15-21, is National Non-Smoking Week, a point at which to make pledges and mark progress.

To date, more than 63,000 B.C. residents have called 8-1-1 for free access to smoking cessation aids. As public health policy, the program signals a sea change: Treating tobacco addiction as the deadly disease that it is rather than as simply a disagreeable habit.

The students host the kick-off Friday, Jan. 27, 2 p.m. in the Irving K. Barber lecture theatre. Todd Gale, head of Interior Health Authority’s community respiratory therapy program, will be among guest speakers. A key element of the Smoke Out is motivation and peer support.

Quitters who sign up are paired with a respiratory therapy student, who lend encouragement and support. The Smoke Out the runs the course of the winter semester. Participants who succeed are eligible for prizes.

Growth of TRU’s international student body seems to have visibly increased cigarette smoking on campus, paralleling tobacco’s grip in some countries. Increased smoking in China, for example, has almost offset the decline in most other countries.

“We’re speaking with English-as-a-second-language classes to talk about that,” Rowlands noted. “It’s definitely something really pronounced on campus.”

To sign up for the Great Canadian Smoke Out or for more information, email tobaccoeducation@tru.ca.