ST..JOHNS (CBC) - Health Canada is asking seniors in Newfoundland and Labrador how and why they stopped lighting up, in a bid to learn more about the older generation's smoking - and quitting - habits.

The Seniors Resource Centre of Newfoundland and Labrador has been commissioned by Health Canada to work on the two-year project, which will collect information in order to develop anti-smoking services for Canadians over 50.

Paula Lancaster, with the Seniors Resource Centre in St. John's, told CBC News that Health Canada intends to shift its target from young people to older people.

"The 5O-plus crowd and seniors are a forgotten group," Lancaster said. "A lot of time and money and energy and promotion has been spent on young people and the government has determined that we really need to start looking at the 50-plus crowd. The more people who quit smoking a this stage ... the less people we are going to see in the hospital."

Lancaster met with a small group of seniors in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador Thursday night.

Ronald Lyall, 71, was at the meeting.

"I use to smoke anywhere from two to three packs a day," he said. "I smoked for 20 years."

Everyone in the meeting agreed they started smoking to fit in, because they thought it was "cool."

That includes Jane Lethbridge, 81.

"We'll I didn't start until I was 25 or 26 and I gave it up at 51," she said.

Lancaster is on a mission to find out successful and unsuccessful quitting strategies seniors have tried.

Health Canada estimates the number of people in Canada who are 65 and older is expected to double by 2025.

"The more people who quit smoking at this stage in their life ... the less people we're going to see in the hospitals," Lancaster said.

Newfoundland and Labrador has one of the highest rates of smoking in the country, with 25 per cent of adults admitting to the habit. The province ties with Quebec for the second highest smoking rate in Canada. Saskatchewan is at the top of that category, with 26 per cent of adults reporting they are smokers, according to a Statistics Canada study released in 2008.

LIKE IT?  LET OTHERS KNOW