March 2017 Volume 6, Issue 3

A Closer Lo k Inside This Issue:

Anti-Tobacco Mural in Honor of Kick Butts Day

1

New Study Finds Smoking Rate

Twice as High for Adults in

Federally Assisted Housing

2

New Local Tobacco-Free Outdoor

Policies in the Southern Tier

2

Oscars and Tobacco 2017 3

Health Care Providers are

Recommended to Ask, Advise, and

Assist Patients to Quit Smoking

4

* Contact STTAC and get FREE

signage for your worksite when

you develop a new tobacco-free

grounds or entryway policy for

your business, while supplies last!

a healthy bottom line

STTAC Staff:

Stacy Hills, MS, MCHES STTAC Director shills@co.chemung.ny.us

Sarah Robbins, BS

Community Engagement Coordinator

sarahrobbins@co.chemung.ny.us

Sunnie Smith, MS

Reality Check Coordinator

sunniesmith@co.chemung.ny.us

McKenzie Richardson, AS

Program Assistant

mrichardson@co.chemung.ny.us

1

Anti-Tobacco Mural in Honor of Kick Butts Day

Kick Butts Day, a national tobacco awareness day, will be held on March 15, 2017 this year. This day focuses on activism that empowers youth to stand out, speak up, and seize control against Big Tobacco. According to the 2014 Surgeon General’s report, Preventing Tobacco Use Among Youth and Young Adults, “There is strong, consistent evidence that advertising and promotion influence the factors that lead directly to tobacco use by adolescents, including the initiation of cigarette smoking as well as its continuation.” Tobacco companies bombard retailers with tobacco marketing materials and promotions. Those stores frequented by youth can heavily and prominently display tobacco products near cash registers and candy where youth will see them.

In order to raise awareness, the Reality Check youth of Chemung, Schuyler, and Steuben counties will be painting a mural to be displayed on the window-front outside of Williams Capi-tal Corporation in downtown Elmira on Friday, March 10, 2017. The mural will focus on the deceptive and manipulative marketing tactics of the tobacco industry. Our event will be one of hundreds of Kick Butts Day events taking place across the United States. The goal is to in-form the public, policy makers, and local media about tobacco's devastating consequences and the effectiveness of the policies we support.

The U.S. Tobacco Industry spent an estimated $9.6 billion dollars on advertising and promo-tion of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco in 2012. Although the Tobacco Control Act allows

states and communities to restrict or regulate the time, place, and manner of tobacco product marketing, data from the New York Youth Tobacco Survey finds that youth are being ex-posed to tobacco product marketing at an alarming rate. The survey data indicates that 85% of high school students were aware of tobacco related ads in convenience stores, su-permarkets, gas stations or pharmacies in 2014. Awareness of pro-tobacco marketing via the internet was reported by 79% of high school students in 2014; in 2000 only 58% reported awareness of pro-tobacco marketing via the internet, a statistically significant increase be-tween 2000 and 2014.

Although NYS youth smoking rates are at their lowest recorded rates, 12,900 youth under 18 become new daily smokers each year and 107,000 NYS high school students currently smoke. Today, there are more forms of danger-ous products to choose from, and many teens are choosing flavored cigars, smokeless tobac-co, hookahs, pipes, and electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes/vapor pens). Reality Check youth from across the state agree that their generation deserves to grow up free from tobacco industry marketing and promotion, but they need help to make that a reality in our communities.

If you would like to learn more about how you can help reduce the negative impact tobacco marketing has on our community, or learn about other tobacco-related issues, contact Sunnie Smith, the Reality Check Coordinator at sunniesmith@co.chemung.ny.us or 737-2858.

Sources:

RealityCheckofNY.com

TobaccoFreeKids.org

New Study Finds Smoking Rate Twice as High for Adults in Federally Assisted Housing

New Local Tobacco-Free Outdoor Policies in the Southern Tier

2

One-third (33.6 percent) of adults living in federally assisted housing smoke, which is nearly double the smoking rate of the general adult population, accord-ing to a study published in the journal Preventive Medi-cine. Compared to non-smokers, these smokers were more likely to report poorer overall health and ad-verse health outcomes such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, more than one emergency room visit in the past year and at least 10 days of missed work in the past year, the study found. Just over half (51.4 percent) of current smok-ers in federally assisted housing had children age 17 or younger in the household.

The new study, conducted by an interagency team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), is the first to describe the de-mographic and health characteristics of HUD-assisted cigarette smokers and non-smokers. In addi-tion to the above findings,

These findings underscore the importance of HUD’s new rule to make public housing properties entirely smoke-free. This rule is necessary both to protect the two-thirds of public housing residents who do not smoke from harmful secondhand smoke and to en-courage smokers to quit. The HUD rule, which took effect February 3, gives public housing agencies 18

months to implement smoke-free policies that apply to all living units, indoor common areas, administra-tive offices and outdoor areas within 25 feet of hous-ing and administrative office buildings. According to HUD, this new rule will protect the health and safety of more than two million public housing residents, including 760,000 children. It is also sound fiscal policy that HUD estimates will save public housing agencies $153 million a year in health care costs, re-pairs and preventable fires.

When HUD issued its rule in November 2016, it reported that more than 228,000 public housing units were already smoke-free, demonstrating that these policies can be effectively implemented. The new rule will expand the impact to more than 940,000 units.

The new study also highlights the need to pro-vide smoking cessation treatments and support to smokers living in assisted housing. It found that about half (50.4 percent) of smokers receiv-ing HUD assistance had tried to quit in the past year.

The study assessed smoking-related behaviors and health outcomes among U.S. adults who received federal housing assistance from 2006-2012. It is based on data from the National Health Interview Survey linked with HUD administrative data to iden-tify HUD-assisted adults.

Highlighting Importance of Smoke-Free Public Housing Rule

Source: : http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/press_releases/post/2017_03_02_hud

The Southern Tier Tobacco Awareness Coalition

(STTAC) can help municipalities and businesses

with the development of a tobacco-free policy for

their grounds, which includes: their campus, entry-

ways, parks, pools, beaches, and sports fields. Over

the last few months, STTAC has assisted a couple

of local organizations in improving the health of

our communities through the implementation of

tobacco-free grounds policies:

As of January 1, 2017 the Arc of Chemung

prohibits the use of tobacco products including

cigarettes, e-cigarettes, and oral tobacco prod-

ucts (i.e. “spit tobacco”). This is a 100% tobac-

co-free grounds policy including parking areas

for their Sullivan Street site, other sites may

have designated smoking areas.

As of January 31, 2017 the Finger Lakes

SPCA restricts smoking on grounds to desig-

nated smoking areas and does not allow any

smoking in company vehicles. This policy in-

cludes the use of electronic nicotine delivery

systems (i.e. e-cigarettes, vape pens, e-hookahs,

advanced refillable personal vaporizers, elec-

tronic pipes).

By implementing these policies, these organizations

have effectively reduced their patrons, employees,

and visitors’ exposure to the 7000 harmful chemi-

cals found in secondhand smoke.

For sample policies, signage and/or assistance in

creating a tobacco-free outdoor policy contact Sarah

Robbins with STTAC at 607-737-2858. For more

information regarding local efforts to reduce the

negative impact of tobacco on our communities

visit www.STTAC.org.

Sources: www.tobaccofreenys.org http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/secondhand_smoke/health_effects/

Statement of Matthew Myers, President, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids

3 Source: https://smokefreemovies.ucsf.edu/sfm-ads/ad-119

The Southern Tier Tobacco Awareness Coalition (STTAC) seeks to build healthier communities through tobacco free living in Chemung, Schuyler, & Steuben, NY.

STTAC has 4 initiatives:

To reduce the impact of retail tobacco product marketing on youth, Point-of Sale (POS).

To increase the number of Tobacco Free Outdoor (TFO) policies, which includes tobacco free worksites, parks, vehicles, entryways and other public outdoor areas.

To increase the number of smoke-free multi-unit housing (SF-MUH) policies.

Eliminate pro-tobacco imagery from youth-rated movies and the internet, Smoke-Free Media (SFM).

Physical & Mailing Address:

103 Washington Street Elmira, NY 14901

Main Office Phone number:

Main Line: 607-737-2858

Director: 737-2028 ext.73482

Reality Check Coordinator: 737-2028 ext.73483

Community Engagement Coordinator: 737-2028 ext.73480

Program Assistant: 737-2028 ext.73481

We’re on the Web, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube! www.sttac.org www.facebook/sttac www.twitter/sttacny www.youtube/sttacny

STTAC Contact Information:

4

Health Care Providers are Recommended to Ask, Advise, and Assist Patients to Quit Smoking

The Clinical Practice Guidelines for Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence (Fiore, et al., 2008)

recommend that health care providers ASK if their patients smoke, ADVISE smokers to quit,

and ASSIST patients with quit attempts through counseling and medications.1 According to

2015 data from the NY Adult Tobacco Survey:

ASK: Among current smokers who report having seen a health care provider in the past 12

months, most (87.3%) report having been asked if they smoke cigarettes.

ADVISE: Close to 3 out of 4 smokers (72.6%) report that their health care provider advised

them to quit smoking.

ASSIST: 1 out of 2 smokers (50.8%) report their health care provider offered assistance to

quit.

In 2015, 66% of adult smokers stopped smoking for one day or more because they were trying

to quit smoking.2 Evidence demonstrates that health care provider assistance doubles the odds

that a smoker will quit.1 The aim of the NY Tobacco Control Program’s Health Systems for a

Tobacco‐Free NY initiative is to work with medical and mental health care organizations to im‐

plement systematic, guideline‐concordant, evidenced‐based tobacco dependence treatment.

Percentage of Smokers in NYS who were Asked, Advised, or Assisted with Smoking Cessa-

tion by their Providers, 2003-2015

1. Fiore, M., Jaen, C., Froelicher, E., Baker, T., & Baily, W. (2008). A clinical practice guideline for treating tobacco use and

dependence: 2008 update. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 135(2).

2. New York Adult Tobacco Survey 2015

Source: New York Adult Tobacco Survey, 2003‐2015. Of note, the survey was not conducted in 2013.

Contact the Bureau of Chronic Disease Evaluation and Research, New York State Department of Health at (518) 473‐0673 or

send an e‐mail to tcp@health.ny.gov. StatShots can be accessed online at:

http://www.health.ny.gov/prevention/tobacco_control/reports/statshots/

1-866-NY-QUITS

www.nysmokefree.com