Barb Tarbox kept teens from smoking

We owe a great deal to a 42 year old woman in Canada who's life (cut short from smoking cigarettes), saved the lives of many and spared thousands from an early death.

This article was also inspired by fellow lensmasters Poutine and Dr. Chris Day (their inspiring lenses are featured in the right sidebar).

On December 30th, 2010 the federal government announced that it will update its cigarette packages with new warnings, including Barb Tarbox on her deathbed.

Photo Credit: Health Canada, image by Greg Southam, The Journal, edmontonjournal.com

This was not accomplished without a fight. Health Canada apparently began to cave from pressure by the tobacco lobby, in the last few months. However, their decision made no sense; especially after the US government began using Tarbox's photos on their own new cigarette packages. Thank god for public outrage, though. Perhaps, some believe, the government only acted now because of the fierce public pressure.

Back to Barb, she went on a powerful anti-smoking crusade from October 2002 to May 18, 2003, when she died. Visiting schools and telling her life story about smoking. It definitely had a lasting effect on impressionable teens to never even try a cigarette. I still hear some of them mention how her raw honesty moved them to never start smoking. As I have mentioned in previous lenses, we cannot measure what we prevent, however, we owe a great deal to those who did prevent untimely deaths. Let us not forget Barb's selfless act - she is the hero here.

The photo of Barb on her deathbed is truly shocking and amazing, I am sure you will soon see it. (UPDATE: It is now shown at top, left). Journal photographer Greg Southam even expressed (in a telecast I caught on the late news a day ago) that it was hard to look at Barb in that state. He was quoted as saying (taken from The Edmonton Journal article by David Staples titled, "Today is Barb Tarbox Day in Canada" (Dec. 30, 2010) "Barb realized that some of the photos Greg had taken were going to be painful for any smoker to behold and she thought they might well be fitting to appear on smoke packages. I agreed, and promised her I'd do all I could to make that happen."

This was created on January 1st, 2011. All rights reserved. Copyright 2011 sousababy
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