N-O-T News

Brought to you by The American Lung Association of West Virginia, the WV Bureau for Public Health Division of Tobacco Prevention, the Governors Safe and Drug Free Communities Program and the West Virginia Department of Education

I would like to congratulate the following facilitators for providing the N-O-T & ATS programs in their schools.

Not On Tobacco Clinics
Location	Point of Contact
Buckhannon-Upsher High School	Ms. Carr
Cabell County Youth Empowerment Pgm	Mr. White
Cabell Midland High School	Ms. Carovillano
Cabell Vocational Technical Center	Mr. Jackson
Camaron High School	Ms. Fisher
Clay High School	Ms. Grandon
Clay Middle School	Ms. Grandon
Eastbank Middle School	Mr. Hamilton
Fayetteville High School	Mr. Kincaid/ Ms. Hall
Grafton High School	Ms. White
Greenbrier East High School	Ms Hall
Harts High School	Ms. Carter
Hamlin High School	Ms. Linville
Jefferson High School	Ms. Turner
John Marshall High School	Ms. Fisher
Midland Trail High School	Ms. Terry
Morgantown High School	Ms. Berryman
Mt. Hope High School	Ms. Maynard
Nicholas County Vo-Tech	Ms. Woods
North Marion High School	Mr. Henderson/Ms. Conaway
Oak Hill High School	Ms. Wright/Ms Wolfe/Ms. Richardson
Parkersburg High School	Ms. Knapp
Pendleton County High School	Ms. See
Raleigh County Alternative School	Ms. Andrade/Ms. Bonds/Ms. Dawson/Ms. Hutteman
Ripley High School	Ms. Sharp
Ripley Middle School	Ms. Lott
Scott High School	Ms. McClure
Sissonville High School	Ms. Cavendish/Mr. Mead/Ms. Burdette
South Charleston High School	Ms. Payne
St. Mary's High School	Ms. Straight
Summersville Jr. High	Ms. Prendergast
Tolsia High School	Ms. LaHoda
Tug Valley High School	Mr. Ledger
Union Educational Complex	Ms. Mielecki
Wayne Middle School	Ms. Rakes
Webster County High School	Ms. Brackett
Wellsburg Middle School	Ms. Earnest/Ms. Eastham
Wheeling Park High School	Ms. Hershey/Mr. Boissy
Woodrow Wilson High School	Ms. Horton/Ms. Monroe

Alternative to Suspension Clinics
Location	Point of Contact
Braxton County Middle School	Ms. Talbot
Grafton High School	Ms. White
John Marshall High School	Ms. Fisher
Musselman High School	Ms. Hovatter
Oak Hill High School	Ms. Wright
Ripley High School	Ms. Harper
Valley High School	Ms. Scott
Wellsburg Middle School	Ms. Eastham
Wirt County High School	Mr. Watson

N-O-T Year End Statistics

For next month’s news letter -- One of the teens at the Cabell County clinic asked me if I could guarantee success. If you get asked this question how would you answer it? Please email me your responses and I’ll post them in May’s newsletter (which ‘by the way’ is the last one of the school year).

New Surgeon General's Report Expands List of Diseases Caused by Smoking

U.S. Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona today released a new comprehensive report on smoking and health, revealing for the first time that smoking causes diseases in nearly every organ of the body. Published 40 years after the surgeon general’s first report on smoking — which concluded that smoking was a definite cause of three serious diseases — this newest report finds that cigarette smoking is conclusively linked to diseases such as leukemia, cataracts, pneumonia and cancers of the cervix, kidney, pancreas and stomach.

“We’ve known for decades that smoking is bad for your health, but this report shows that it’s even worse,” Dr. Carmona said. “The toxins from cigarette smoke go everywhere the blood flows. I’m hoping this new information will help motivate people to quit smoking and convince young people not to start in the first place.”

According to the report, smoking kills an estimated 440,000 Americans each year. On average, men who smoke cut their lives short by 13.2 years, and female smokers lose 14.5 years. The economic toll exceeds $157 billion each year in the United States — $75 billion in direct medical costs and $82 billion in lost productivity.

“We need to cut smoking in this country and around the world,” HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson said. “Smoking is the leading preventable cause of death and disease, costing us too many lives, too many dollars and too many tears. If we are going to be serious about improving health and preventing disease we must continue to drive down tobacco use. And we must prevent our youth from taking up this dangerous habit.”

In 1964, the Surgeon General’s report announced medical research showing that smoking was a definite cause of cancers of the lung and larynx (voice box) in men and chronic bronchitis in both men and women. Later reports concluded that smoking causes a number of other diseases such as cancers of the bladder, esophagus, mouth and throat; cardiovascular diseases; and reproductive effects. Today’s new report, The Health Consequences of Smoking: A Report of the Surgeon General, expands the list of illness and conditions linked to smoking. The new illnesses and diseases are cataracts, pneumonia, acute myeloid leukemia, abdominal aortic aneurysm, stomach cancer, pancreatic cancer, cervical cancer, kidney cancer, and periodontitis.

Statistics indicate that more than 12 million Americans have died from smoking since the 1964 report of the surgeon general, and another 25 million Americans alive today will most likely die of a smoking-related illness.

The report’s release comes in advance of World No Tobacco Day, an annual event on May 31 that focuses global attention on the health hazards of tobacco use. The goals of World No Tobacco Day are to raise awareness about the dangers of tobacco use, encourage people not to use tobacco, motivate users to quit and encourage countries to implement comprehensive tobacco control programs.

The report concludes that smoking reduces the overall health of smokers, contributing to such conditions as hip fractures, complications from diabetes, increased wound infections following surgery, and a wide range of reproductive complications. For every premature death caused each year by smoking, there are at least 20 smokers living with a serious smoking-related illness.

Another major conclusion, consistent with recent findings of other scientific studies, is that smoking so-called low-tar or low-nicotine cigarettes does not offer a heath benefit over smoking regular or “full-flavor” cigarettes.

“There is no safe cigarette, whether it is called ‘light,’ ultra-light,’ or any other name,” Dr. Carmona said. “The science is clear: the only way to avoid the health hazards of smoking is to quit completely or to never start smoking.”

The report concludes that quitting smoking has immediate and long-term benefits, reducing risks for diseases caused by smoking and improving health in general. “Within minutes and hours after smokers inhale that last cigarette, their bodies begin a series of changes that continue for years,” Dr. Carmona said. “Among these health improvements are a drop in heart rate, improved circulation, and reduced risk of heart attack, lung cancer and stroke. By quitting smoking today a smoker can assure a healthier tomorrow."

Dr. Carmona said it is never too late to stop smoking. Quitting smoking at age 65 or older reduces by nearly 50 percent a person’s risk of dying of a smoking-related disease.

In addition to the 960-page printed report, The Health Consequences of Smoking, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a new interactive scientific database of more than 1,600 key articles cited in the report, available through the Internet (www.surgeongeneral.gov). The database can be used to find detailed information on the specific health effects of smoking as well as to develop customized analyses, tables and figures.

The database will be continually updated as new critical studies are published, allowing the surgeon general to determine on a regular basis whether the evidence supports a new definitive conclusion about smoking-caused disease. “Using this technology, once a threshold of danger is met, we can quickly alert the American people of new information related to smoking,” Dr. Carmona said.

The report found that for a number of diseases and conditions associated with smoking, the evidence is not yet conclusive to establish a causal link. For these illnesses, which include colorectal cancer, liver cancer, prostate cancer, and erectile dysfunction in men, additional studies are needed to reach the threshold of evidence required by the Surgeon General’s strict causal criteria to declare that they are causally related to smoking. These criteria were introduced in the 1964 report and have been updated in the 2004 report using new uniform standards.

For breast cancer, the evidence suggests that there is no causal relationship overall to smoking. However, the report notes that on a genetic basis, some women may be at increased risk if they smoke. More research is required to clarify the role of smoking in the cause and progression of breast cancer.

To help communicate the report findings as widely as possible, Surgeon General Carmona also unveiled a new animated Web site for the public showing the hazards of smoking and the benefits of quitting (www.surgeongeneral.gov). In addition, a full-color, easy-to-read summary of the report has been developed for the public.

“The Web site and public summary of the smoking report are something that I am really proud of,” Dr. Carmona said. “By preparing materials that people who don’t have a medical degree can understand we effectively bring the science to people in a way they can use. Improving the health literacy of Americans by closing the gap between what health professionals know and the public understands will have a lasting positive health impact.”

Copies of the full The Health Consequences of Smoking: A Report of the Surgeon General and related materials are available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Office on Smoking and Health, 1-800-CDC-1311, www.cdc.gov/tobacco and on the surgeon general’s Web site at www.surgeongeneral.gov

Despite making products that kill more than 400,000 people each year, tobacco today remains one of the most unregulated industries in America. Did you know that? For years Big Tobacco has been given special protection by the Federal government and has escaped almost all health and safety regulations that apply to other products.

Last week, Senators Mike DeWine and Ted Kennedy, along with Representatives Tom Davis and Henry Waxman, introduced the bipartisan Family Smoking and Tobacco Prevention Act to give the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the right to regulate tobacco.

FDA regulation of tobacco will stop the tobacco industry from targeting kids, make it easier for current smokers to quit, make current tobacco products less harmful, and force Big Tobacco to tell the truth about what is in their products and the harm they cause.

What would the Family Smoking and Tobacco Prevention Act do?

Stop Marketing and Sales of Tobacco Products to Children -- Effective regulation of the tobacco industry would reduce youth smoking by: (1) restricting marketing and advertising that appeals to kids, and (2) cracking down on illegal tobacco sales to children.

Make Tobacco Products Less Harmful and Less Addictive -- FDA would have authority to require changes in tobacco products including 1) removing or reducing harmful chemicals and 2) reducing levels of nicotine to make products less addictive.

Access to Tobacco Manufacturers' Research -- The FDA and the public would have access to all the research the tobacco industry has conducted on the health effects of their products, as well as the impact of their marketing.

Disclose What Is In Tobacco Products -- The tobacco companies would have to disclose the ingredients and additives in their products.

Larger and More Effective Warning Labels -- Health warnings would have to cover at least 30 percent of the front and back of cigarette packs. FDA could require manufacturers to change the size, location, content and color of warnings to make them more effective.

Prohibit Deceptive Health Claims * The FDA would have authority to prohibit tobacco companies from deceiving the public with unsubstantiated claims that some tobacco products are safer. Tobacco companies could only make such claims if they were scientifically proven and would not discourage smokers from quitting or encourage people to start smoking.

Ban Misleading Terms Like "Light", "Low-Tar" -- The legislation bans the use of terms like "light", "mild" and "low-tar" because cigarettes labeled as such have been proven to be no safer and mislead the public.

This is a link to the entire bill: http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=108_cong_bills&docid=f:s2461is.txt.pdf

This is a link to a more detailed CTFK summary of the legislation: http://tobaccofreekids.org/reports/fda/provisions.shtml

Fundraising Opportunity

The American Lung Association of West Virginia has purchased some adorable miniature plush stuffed bears. Some of you have seen the bears at various events and we have been using them as door prizes, etc. Our Executive Director Sara Crickenberger is making them available to you as a possible fundraising vehicle for your groups. Your cost for the bears will be $4 each: We have five different colors blue, green, orange, purple and red. You may set any price on them you think is fair. Bottom line is that anything you make over $4 is your profit.

Incentives

Mini-Grants

$50 mini-grants are available to get your groups started. The mini-grant can be used to purchase pencils, stress balls and most importantly, food! We have heard many times, “If you feed them, they will come!” Applying for the mini-grant is easy.

N-O-T Stipends

Another positive incentive are the $250 stipends, which are available for facilitators after all evaluation materials have been returned to ALAWV.

Student Journals

Program expenses are kept to a minimum since we provide all required hand outs for students in this “journal.” Blank pages are provided for the students to write in.

ATS Stipends

Thanks to a generous grant from the Department of Education Office Of Healthy schools we now have $100 stipends available for facilitators who use the ATS program in their schools.

You can find all these resources and more at our web site click here à N-O-T

Free Technical Assistance! Points of contacts are:

N-O-T Program Manager

Tony Richards

American Lung Association of WV

Post Office Box 3980, 415 Dickinson Street

Charleston, West Virginia 25339-3980

tony@alawv.org ; www.alawv.org

(304) 342-6600 or 1-800-LUNG-USA

Regional Tobacco Prevention Specialists

If you know of something happening with the N-O-T program that you feel other facilitators would benefit from, please call Tony (304)342-6600 or email tony@alawv.org. The newsletter will be published once a month.

If you are interested in our programs and would like more information, or would like to schedule a visit, call Sarah Cavendish at our office.