Walt Disney Co. Becomes First Studio to Limit Smoking Depictions to R-Rated Films Only

The Walt Disney Company has become the first major Hollywood studio to prohibit cigarette smoking depictions in films they produce with youth ratings. The company's new policy will limit smoking depictions to films with an R rating, a move the U.S. Surgeon General has said could save the lives of over 1,000,000 children if the entire industry followed suit. The new policy covers all films that Disney produces, but disappointingly does not extend to films the company distributes.
"Disney is showing their leadership by taking action on the Surgeon General and CDC report, implementing a policy with direct impact on this public health crisis," said Andrew Behar, CEO of environmental health advocacy non-profit As You Sow. "The next step should be to publicly endorse an MPAA policy to require an R rating for all films depicting smoking."

"We are extending our policy to prohibit smoking in movies across the board, [to] Marvel, Lucas, Pixar, [and] Disney films," said Disney CEO Robert Iger, responding to shareholders at Disney's annual meeting on March 12. "In terms of any new characters that are created under any of those labels we would absolutely prohibit smoking in any of those films," Iger added later.

In 2012, the US Surgeon General concluded, "There is a causal relationship between depictions of smoking in the movies and the initiation of smoking among young people." In 2015, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded, "Giving an R rating to movies with smoking would be expected to reduce the number of teen smokers by nearly one in five (18%) and prevent one million deaths from smoking among children alive today."

"Consistent with health authorities, Disney's policy exempts smoking for depictions of historical figures, and for negative portrayal of smoking," said Tom McCaney, Associate Director of Corporate Social Responsibility at The Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia. "But, seemingly contrary to Mr. Iger's commitment, Disney's policy does not extend to movies Disney distributes under its Touchstone brand; we hope the company closes this loophole and also extends the policy to all tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, which is important as youth tobacco use changes."
A coalition of investors, including As You Sow and faith-based shareholders Trinity Health and Sisters of St. Francis (part of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility) have engaged with Disney and other studios on the issue of tobacco impressions in films for over a decade.

"We commend Disney for this historic move," said Rev. Michael Crosby, Tobacco Issue Coordinator for ICCR. "However, this is still an industry-wide problem that has not been resolved by the MPAA. The CDC demonstrated that the R rating for kid-rated movies could save 1,000,000 lives. Disney is part of the solution, but 88% of youth-rated films are not made by Disney."
Posted at http://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwmovies/article/Walt-Disney-Co-Becomes-First-Studio-to-Limit-Smoking-Depictions-to-R-Rated-Films-Only-20150714

Reposted at TobaccoDeathRay

Increases in Smoking Cessation Interventions After a Feedback and Improvement Initiative Using Electronic Health Records

Dear Colleagues:

A tobacco-related article written in partnership with New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health is published in the latest MMWR. Read the full article here.

Increases in Smoking Cessation Interventions After a Feedback and Improvement Initiative Using Electronic Health Records — 19 Community Health Centers, New York City, October 2010–March 2012

Electronic health records have the potential to make it easier for health care providers to screen for and document tobacco use and to intervene with patients who use tobacco products. In addition, patient lists generated by an electronic health record system can offer timely feedback to providers and can also be used to identify issues where improvement is needed. Most smokers want to quit and make at least one medical visit each year. Documenting smoking status and intervening with smokers in health care settings increases quit rates, but many providers and practices do not routinely take these actions. An electronic health record-based pay-for-improvement initiative conducted in 19 Community Health Centers in New York City during October 2010-March 2012 sought to increase smoking status documentation and cessation interventions. At the end of the initiative, the mean proportion of patients who were documented as smokers had increased from 24% to 27% while the mean proportion of documented smokers who received a cessation intervention increased from 23% to 54%.

2013 BRFSS data

Dear Colleagues,
On behalf of the CDC’s Division of Population Health, I am pleased to inform you of the recent release of the 2013 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data.

The BRFSS continues to be the largest ongoing telephone-based surveillance system in the world, with more than 491,000 interviews conducted in 2013 across all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Guam. The 2013 data on health risk behaviors, clinical preventive health practices, and health care access (primarily related to chronic disease and injury) come from a representative sample of non-institutionalized adults aged 18 years and older in each state.

The 2013 BRFSS data continue to reflect the changes initially made in 2011 in weighting methodology (raking) and the addition of cell phone-only respondents. The data allow for state-to-state and state-to-nationwide comparisons, and the state-specific data provide a sound basis for developing and evaluating public health programs, including programs targeted to reduce disparities in addressing health risks.

We encourage our partners from public health agencies, private enterprises, non-profit organizations, academia and government posts at the national, state, and local levels to use the data to inform data-based public health activities. We hope the new BRFSS data strengthen the capacity of all public health stakeholders and partners, to identify and address health risks, monitor changes in health-risk behaviors and diseases, assess public health programs, and design and target implementation of prevention strategies at local and state levels.

To access the 2013 prevalence estimates, visit the BRFSS website at the following link: 
http://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/brfss/

Data files are available at: http://www.cdc.gov/brfss/annual_data/annual_2013.html.
The 2013 BRFSS data set is an important public health tool. We look forward to learning how you’ve used the data to help you prevent disease and promote health.

Warm regards,
Wayne H. Giles, MD, MS
Director
Division of Population Health
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

National Tobacco Education Campaign Seeks Storytellers

About 480,000 people die from tobacco-related diseases annually in the United States, yet many Americans do not understand the full extent of the health damage that smoking can cause. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC's) groundbreaking national tobacco education campaign, Tips From Former Smokers (Tips), aims to tell real stories about tobacco by featuring Americans who have undergone devastating life changes caused by years of smoking. Since the launch in 2012, the campaign has motivated 1.6 million smokers to make a quit attempt. Moreover, more than 100,000 U.S. smokers will remain quit as a result of the 2012 campaign. Call volume to the 1-800-QUIT-NOW quitline increases dramatically during each campaign. In 2013, the average weekly number of calls increased by 75%.

Evidence-based research strongly supports how hard-hitting ads can reduce smoking and save lives. The Tips campaign uses this technique to reach as many smokers as possible with a profound impact. For the 2016Tips campaign,CDC is looking for stories from former smokers who:

• Have or have had anxiety OR depression (not both) and a serious health condition due to smoking (ages 30–60)
• Have been diagnosed with COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) due to smoking (ages 40–55)
• Currently serve or have served in the military and have been diagnosed with a serious health condition due to smoking (i.e.,coronary artery disease/heart attack, COPD, peripheral artery disease, cancer, or stroke) (ages 30–60)
• Have been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis while smoking (ages 25–60)
• Have used electronic cigarettes along with tobacco cigarettes instead of quitting because they thought it was better for their health than smoking cigarettes alone and yet they experienced a severe health problem (ages 20–60)
• Have been diagnosed with a serious health condition caused by smoking and now have a compelling positive story about the benefits experienced since quitting (ages 18–54)

For more information or to participate, visit www.joinCDCtips.com or contact Mimi Webb Miller Castingby e-mail(contact@joinCDCtips.com) or by phone (toll free) (844) 274-9816. Travel expenses and a stipend will be provided.

CDC study finds more than a quarter-million youth who had never smoked a cigarette have tried e-cigarettes

Tuesday, September 2, 2014 CDC study finds more than a quarter-million youth who had never smoked a cigarette have tried e-cigarettes A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-authored study* found that in 2013, 263,000 young people who had never smoked had used e-cigarettes, compared with 79,000 in 2011. For the study, CDC researchers analyzed data from the 2011, 2012, and 2013 National Youth Tobacco Surveys of middle and high school students to assess associations between e-cigarette use and smoking intentions among U.S. youth who had never smoked conventional cigarettes. For this analysis, researchers used established methods to identify youth who are classified as having smoking intentions. Youth who reported they would definitely not smoke in the next year and reported they would definitely not smoke if offered a cigarette by a friend were defined as not having an intention to smoke. All others were classified as having positive intention to smoke conventional cigarettes. Previous research has demonstrated that these youth are more likely to initiate smoking in the future. Other key findings of the study include: ·         Ever users of e-cigarettes were almost twice as likely to have smoking intentions than never users of e-cigarettes, 43.9% compared with 21.5%. ·         As shown in previous studies, the greater the number of advertising sources (internet, magazine and newspaper, retail environment, and television or movies) to which young people were exposed, the more likely they are to be at risk for initiation of smoking:  §  13% of students who said they had no exposures to such ads had smoking intentions §  20.4% among those who reported exposures from one to two ad sources §  25.6% among those who reported exposures from three to four ad sources. There is evidence that nicotine’s adverse effects on adolescent brain development could result in lasting deficits in cognitive function.  Nicotine is highly addictive.  About three out of every four teen smokers become adult smokers, even if they intend to quit in a few years.  Each day, more than 3,200 American youth smoke their first cigarette.  The Surgeon General has concluded that unless the smoking rate is rapidly reduced, 5.6 million American children alive today – about one in every 13—will die prematurely from a smoking-related disease. The National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) is an annual survey conducted by CDC in collaboration with FDA to provide national data on long-term, intermediate, and short-term indicators key to the design, implementation, and evaluation of comprehensive tobacco prevention and control programs. The NYTS also serves as a baseline for comparing progress toward meeting selected Healthy People 2020 goals for reducing tobacco use among adolescents. More than 50 years since the landmark Surgeon General’s Report linking cigarette smoking to lung cancer, smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the United States, killing nearly half a million Americans every year.  More than 16 million Americans live with a smoking-related disease.  Smoking-related diseases cost Americans $132 billion a year in direct health care expenses, much of which comes in taxpayer-supported payments.  For additional information on CDC’s work to prevent smoking and tobacco use, please visit www.cdc.gov/tobacco or contact Jennifer Greaser at JGreaser@cdc.gov. * Access to the full publication is available only by subscription.  A CDC summary of the paper’s findings is here: http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/youth/e-cigarettes/index.htm
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CDC/Washington Office, 395 E St., S.W., Washington, DC 20201 Telephone: (202) 245-0600 / Fax: (202) 245-0602 http://www.cdc.gov/washington