The Ontario government has launched a public education campaign to encourage residents in the province to undergo screening for colon cancer.

"This is a very serious issue," said Health Minister George Smitherman said Friday.

Smitherman said colon cancer, also known as colorectal cancer, kills about 3,250 people in Ontario each year. After lung cancer, it is the second-leading cause of cancer death for men and women combined.

Currently, only one in five people age 50 and over is screened for the disease in the province, while about 7,800 new cases are diagnosed every year.

"Colorectal cancer is the second deadliest form of cancer and knowing about the importance of screening early and regularly can make the difference between life and death," Smitherman said.

The campaign will include television ads to be broadcast in 22 languages, take-home colorectal cancer screening kits to be distributed to residents aged 50 and over by health-care providers, and a new website with details on the disease, risk factors and prevention.

The government also plans to provide more education to health-care providers on the need to screen their patients.

Smitherman said the campaign, called ColonCancerCheck, is designed to convey the message that regular screening for the disease decreases the number of people who die from colon cancer by at least 16 per cent.

The website, for example, features a mold of a human being with major organs, arteries and veins visible through clear plastic. "You are not see-through," it reads. "So how do you know if you have colon cancer?"

Colon cancer, it says, can be cured most of the time if detected early through regular screening. "It would be a lot easier to see it if you were transparent! But you're not. That's why you need to be aware of the importance of screening and early detection of this disease," the site says.

The kits will be made available to health-care providers in April. Each kit is known as a fecal occult blood test because the screening detects trace amounts of blood in the stool.

People who have an increased risk of colorectal cancer because of family history and those who test positive on the screening kit will receive a colonoscopy.

The campaign is part of a five-year $193.5 million ColonCancerCheck program launched in January 2007.

Peter Goodhand, chief executive officer of the Ontario division of the Canadian Cancer Society, said in a news release in Toronto that the society welcomes the campaign because it believes it will save lives.

"We congratulate the Ontario government for taking the lead and making this province the first in Canada to implement such a program," he said.

The society estimates that 1,750 men and 1,500 women died of colorectal cancer in Ontario in 2007. An estimated 4,200 men and 3,600 women were diagnosed in 2007.

The society recommends that men and women age 50 and over, with an average risk of the disease, have a fecal occult blood test at least every two years.

People who have a close relative with colorectal cancer, personal history of colorectal cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, some inherited syndromes, or benign polyps should work out an individual plan of screening with their doctors, it says.

Most colorectal cancers develop from small growths, called polyps, in people who have an average risk of the disease. Fecal occult blood testing is designed to identify polyps early so they can be removed during a colonoscopy or surgery before they become cancerous.