Congratulations! The article you wrote has just been accepted by a mainstream women's magazine. It will be used as a cover story: "Cut Your Cancer Risk by 50 Per Cent." This is your first big break and will be an important step in establishing your career as a journalist. There's just one catch. In her letter of acceptance, the editor of the magazine asked you to delete any mention of smoking. Instead you should focus on other lifestyle changes: diet, using sunscreen, exercise, and so on. She said that the magazine's cigarette advertisers (there will be three full-page cigarette ads in the same issue) could "take offense to an anti-smoking message."

You worked hard on this article, and you know that lung cancer has now overtaken breast cancer as the leading cause of cancer death among women, and that 85 to 90 per cent of all lung cancer is caused by smoking. You feel strongly that women are being deceived by cigarette ads into thinking that smoking is stylish, sexy, and a way to control weight. You know that many women fear breast cancer, but that they need to be alerted to the fact that lung cancer is at least as dangerous a killer, and is largely preventable. Your own aunt, whom you respected as a strong-minded, caring woman, died of lung cancer when her children were still in their early teens. You saw the anguish your cousins went through as they watched their mother being consumed by cancer.

What can you do? What should you do?

• List your options and describe the consequences for each (what you win and what you lose).
• Choose a course of action.
• Write a letter to the magazine editor responding to her letter of acceptance.

Reprinted, with permission, from Smoke-Free for Life, a smoking prevention curriculum supplement from the Nova Scotia Department of Health, Drug Dependency and Tobacco Control Unit, 1996.