The Expand Project Launch: Smoking Cessation for Queer and Trans Young Adults

The Ontario Tobacco Research Unit (OTRU) and the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) are launching The Expand Project, a social marketing campaign and research initiative to address smoking (and vaping) among queer and trans young adults in Toronto, Thunder Bay and Montreal. This newsletter describes the launch of the campaign and research findings after the first two years of development.

Preliminary Findings:

• Queer and trans young adults face additional stressors and often use smoking and vaping as a coping mechanism to fitting in and dealing with stress, stigma.
• Smoking rates differ across different LGBTQI2S+ communities
• Young adult smokers are interested in tailored cessation services that are culturally competent and address broader concerns including mental health