WVU Prevention Research Center Honored Receives National Research Award For Not-On-Tobacco Program

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently honored the West Virginia Prevention Research Center with an award for innovation in research as part of the CDC's 20th anniversary celebration of its national Prevention Research Centers Program.

Kimberly Horn, Ed.D., assistant professor of community medicine, accepted the award during a ceremony in Washington, D.C. The award recognizes the unique methods, design, and research rigor of WVU's Not-On-Tobacco (N-O-T) program, which was adopted by the American Lung Association and has helped thousands of young people quit and reduce smoking. Dr. Horn, along with Prevention Research Center Director Geri A. Dino, Ph.D., developed the program.

 "We are honored to receive this prestigious award," Horn said. "Though the award was given to our center, it is truly an award that goes to hundreds of people. The innovation recognized by this award is not just about the science--it is about the power of the people and the communities who put life into the program every day."

 The Prevention Research Center Program is a part of the CDC's National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. The program is a network of academic researchers, public health agencies, and community members that conducts applied research in disease prevention and control.

 The WVU Center, housed in the Department of Community Medicine, is one of 33 federally funded prevention research centers across the U.S.

Study: Cigarettes Cost Society $40 a Pack

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

 Published: November 25, 2004 Filed at 1:45 p.m. ET http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/health/AP-Smoking-Costs.html?oref=login

 DURHAM, N.C. (AP) -- Cigarettes may cost smokers more then they believe. A study by a team of health economists finds the combined price paid by their families and society is about $40 per pack of cigarettes.

 The figure is based on lifetime costs for a 24-year-old smoker over 60 years for cigarettes, taxes, life and property insurance, medical care and lost earnings because of smoking-related disabilities, researchers said.

 ``It will be necessary for persons aged 24 and younger to face the fact that the decision to smoke is a very costly one -- one of the most costly decisions they make,'' the study's authors concluded.

 Smokers pay about $33 of the cost, their families absorb $5.44 and others pay $1.44, according to health economists from Duke University and a professor from the University of South Florida. The study drew on data including Social Security earnings histories dating to 1951.

 Incidental costs such as higher cleaning bills and lower resale values for smokers' cars were not included.

 Most smoking studies rely on a snapshot of annual costs, said co-author Frank Sloan, an economics professor and the director of the Center for Health, Policy, Law and Management at Duke's Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy.

 Despite the finding that smoking is a costly habit for individuals, society carries less of a burden than generally believed, the study's authors determined.

 ``The reason the number is low is that for private pensions, Social Security, and Medicare -- the biggest factors in calculating costs to society -- smoking actually saves money,'' Sloan said. ``Smokers die at a younger age and don't draw on the funds they've paid into those systems.''

 Given the high costs, it is ``remarkable,'' the authors conclude, that money from the 1998 settlement involving 46 state attorneys general and major tobacco manufacturers largely are not being spent on smoking-cessation or related programs.

 But even after taking into account the cost savings from early deaths, smoking still costs society $2.20 a pack for such things as sick leave, life insurance outlays and medical care not paid by smokers. The researchers concluded that after subtracting the 76 cents a pack smokers pay in state and federal taxes, society's net cost is $1.44 a pack.

 Many states use the money to cover budget deficits or, as in North Carolina, on economic development in tobacco communities.

 The study's other co-authors are Jan Ostermann, Christopher Conover and Donald H. Taylor Jr. of Duke, along with Gabriel Picone of the University of South Florida. Their research was supported in part by a grant from the National Institute on Aging.

State Health Rankings for West Virginia.

 America's Health: State Health Rankings combines individual measures of personal behaviors, community environment and health policies with the resultant health outcomes into one, comprehensive view of the health of a state. It employs a unique methodology, developed and periodically reviewed by a panel of leading public health scholars, that weights the contributions of various factors, such as smoking, motor vehicle deaths, high school graduation rates, children in poverty, access to care and incidence of preventable disease, to a community's health. The report is based on data from the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services, Commerce, Education and Labor, the National Safety Council and the National Association of State Budget Officers.

 Purpose

 The purpose of America's Health: State Health Rankings is to stimulate public conversation concerning health in our states, as well as provide information to facilitate citizen participation. We encourage participation in all three elements: personal behaviors, community environment and health policies. Each person, individually and in their capacity as an employee, employer, voter, community volunteer, health or elected official, can contribute to the advancement of the healthiness of their state regardless of whether its current standing is first or 50th. Here’s the link to the report:  http://www.unitedhealthfoundation.org/shr2004/states/WestVirginia.html

Free Technical Assistance! Points of contacts are:

N-O-T Program Manager Tony Richards, American Lung Association of WV tony@alawv.org ; www.alawv.org, (304) 342-6600 or 1-800-LUNG-USA

Regional Tobacco Prevention Specialists

RESA I: Lori McGraw, (304) 256-4712 x331

RESA II: Sue Niestroy-Wilson, (304) 529-6205

RESA III: Cybele Boehm, (304) 766-7655 x114

RESA IV: Cheri Hall, (304) 872-6440 x19

RESA V: Gus Nelson, (304) 485-6513 x 122

RESA VI: Caryn Puskarich, (304) 231-3816

RESA VII: Adrianne Marsh, (304) 624-6554 x 238

RESA VIII: Donna Kuhn, (304) 257-2641