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The mission 

of the American Lung Association is to prevent lung disease and promote lung health.

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304-599-6981.

Last updated 9/22/2004

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CDC Reports Youth Smoking Rates Have Stopped Declining
On March 31, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released the results from its 2004 National Youth Tobacco Survey, which showed that smoking rates among high school and middle school students remained essentially unchanged from 2002 to 2004 after declining sharply since the late 1990’s.  Two of the main causes of this were tobacco companies increasing their marketing, especially on cigarette price discounts, undermining efforts to reduce smoking by increasing cigarette taxes, and funding for tobacco prevention programs, especially media campaigns, were cut at both the federal and state levels from 2002 to 2004.  A key finding from the report showed that from 1997 to 2002, when youth smoking declined most sharply, the price of cigarettes increased by 80 percent while from 2002 to 2004, the price increased by only 4 percent.  The report demonstrates that higher cigarette taxes and well-funded tobacco prevention programs are the most successful ways to curb youth smoking.

At home in West Virginia

So far this school year we have 53 N-O-T programs and 46 ATS programs running. I have collected program evaluations for 435 students. 35% of the students participating in N-O-T have quit using tobacco and 32% have reduced their intake. We have provided teachers a total of 448 N-O-T Student Journals and 170 ATS Student Journals so far this year. I have held five NOT facilitator training events with 67 participants certified. I have awarded $13,250 in incentive stipends and $2,150 in mini-grants.

 I would like to congratulate all facilitators that have provided N-O-T & ATS programs in their schools this school year.

New York Study Shows Smokefree Air Law Had No Effect on Business
On May 2, the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance released a study showing that business at bars and taverns has remained steady since the smokefree air law went into effect in July 2003.  Full-service and limited-service restaurants, which were broken out separately in the study, showed an increase in business since the law took effect.  This study, like all independent studies before it, shows that smokefree air laws do not have a negative effect on business, and in some cases have a positive effect. (Parts excerpted from: Mark Johnson, State Says Smoking Ban Has Not Hurt Bar Business, the Associated Press, May 2, 2005.)

TOBACCO CONTROL ON WWW.LUNGUSA.ORG

• TAKE ACTION: Show Your Support for Smokefree Communities

• Updated Lung Disease Reports The Latest Trends in Asthma, COPD, and Lung Cancer

• American Lung Association Report Shows that States Surpass Federal Government in Protecting Children from Tobacco

• Freedom From Smoking(R) Online - web-based, smoking cessation support

Dear Friend of the American Lung Association,

One out of every two people who open this email are breathing polluted air.  That could be you.

Find out the State of the Air in your area by typing your zip code:

SECONDHAND SMOKE INCREASES HEART RISKS

Subtitle:  Accumulated data supports smoke-free environments, experts say

Source: HealthDay [HealthScout]

Date: 2005-05-23

Author: Steven Reinberg HealthDay Reporter

URL: http://www.healthday.com/view.cfm?id=525841

ID: 197676

A new study suggests that even small amounts of secondhand smoke can cause life-threatening changes to a nonsmokers' circulatory system.

And while the immediate effects of this exposure are reversed within a few hours, exposure to secondhand smoke over longer periods of time can have devastating consequences to the heart, including an increased risk for heart attack, researchers warn.

"Secondhand smoke is even worse than we thought," said co-researcher Stanton A. Glantz, a professor of medicine and longtime antismoking advocate at the University of California, San Francisco. "It increases the risk for an acute coronary event like a heart attack or long-term development of atherosclerosis," he added.

Chronic exposure to secondhand smoke is about 80 percent as deleterious to health as being a pack-a-day smoker, Glantz said. "The cardiovascular system is exquisitely sensitive to the toxins of secondhand cigarette smoke. Most of the toxic effects of secondhand smoke occur within five minutes of exposure," he noted.

In their study, Glantz and his colleague Dr. Joaquin Barnoya, an assistant adjunct professor of epidemiology at UCSF, reviewed the existing medical literature on the effects of secondhand smoke on the cardiovascular system. They looked at 29 studies published since 1995 that compared the effects of secondhand smoke with the effects of active smoking.

Glantz and Barnoya found there is sufficient evidence that key aspects of cardiovascular function, including clotting, the ability of blood vessels to change size, arterial stiffness, atherosclerosis, oxidative stress, inflammation, heart rate variability, energy metabolism, and severity of heart attack are all sensitive to toxins found in secondhand smoke.

 REMINDERS

Don’t forget to order your student journals at least one week before your program is scheduled to start. You can place your journal order online at the same time you request your $50 mini-grant!

Another way of getting incentives is community donations. Explain to local businesses that you are trying to help teens stop smoking, and you will get anything from pizza to sodas donated. This is an excellent way of forming education/community partnerships.

 STIPENDS

The West Virginia Department of Education’s continued support of the N-O-T program is allowing us to once again provide the $250 stipend for N-O-T classes and $100 stipends for ATS classes. Please remember that stipends are only awarded after all evaluation materials have been returned, unlike the $50 mini-grants that are provided before you begin your sessions.

 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 click HERE. 

 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 handouts 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:

Tony Richards, Program Manager

Not On Tobacco (N-O-T)

American Lung Association of West Virginia

415 Dickinson Street, PO Box 3980

Charleston, WV 25339-3980

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

tony@alawv.org / www.alawv.org

Regional Tobacco Prevention Specialist

The RESA Tobacco Prevention Program serves as the regional liaison with the school districts to provide training, technical assistance, and staff development to teachers and staff in the areas of tobacco prevention, education and cessation. Available programs include Life Skills Training, Raze/TATU (Teens Against Tobacco) N-O-T (Not On Tobacco-a research-based cessation program for teens), related youth programs which include tobacco prevention initiatives, tobacco policy considerations and community tobacco prevention coalitions and groups. The Tobacco Prevention Specialist can assist with developing alternatives to suspension programs, youth empowerment and prevention activities. The primary focus is to provide training and technical assistance on any implementation activities as well as provide assistance to County Safe and Drug Free Schools Coordinators.