Resource for Tobacco Control Program Evaluation

The Power of Proof: An Evaluation Primer is a series of online educational tools produced by the Tobacco Technical Assistance Consortium (TTAC). These tools are designed to help tobacco control professionals demonstrate the success of their programs through evaluation. This series will give those who are new to evaluation, and those who want to brush up on their skills, access to a collection of introductory information, tools, and resources from experts in the field. The Power of Proof series includes these parts:

• Part 1: Setting the Stage
• Part 2: Evaluation Planning
• Part 3: Writing Objectives
• Part 4: Data Collection
• Part 5: Types of evaluation
• Part 6: Interpreting the Data
• Part 7: Reporting Results

http://www.ttac.org/services/power-of-proof/index.html

Resource for Tobacco Coalitions

Reaching Higher Ground: A guide for preventing, preparing for, and transforming conflict for tobacco control coalitions.

http://www.ttac.org/services/pdfs/Higher_Ground.pdf

Unequal Opportunity Killer -World Heart Day Activities

New SGR50 Video and Upcoming Events!

Dear Colleagues: We are happy to share a new video and upcoming events to help you promote the 2014 Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health.                                        New SGR50 Video:  Unequal Opportunity Killer Cigarette smoking has devastating effects on health and it is an unequal opportunity killer. People with lower incomes, less education, and certain racial and ethnic minorities are more likely to smoke, so they bear a bigger share of the disease burden caused by the tobacco use epidemic. In conversations with several leaders in tobacco control, Unequal Opportunity Killer shines a spotlight on this health disparity, how it developed, and how tobacco companies have contributed. APHA Live Webcast on September 23 on Tobacco Control Please join APHA, CVS Health, Acting Surgeon General RADM Boris Lushniak, and a distinguished panel to discuss new approaches to helping Americans live tobacco-free lives. The webcast will be on September 23 from 10 AM to 1 PM, EDT. During the webcast, the speakers and panel will explore how traditional and nontraditional partners can come together to reduce tobacco use and ultimately improve population health and reduce costs to the health care system. A diverse panel will discuss this critical health concern and look for new solutions. We hope you will be able to watch the live webcast and participate via the hashtag #APHATobacco. September 29 is World Heart Day This annual event was founded by the World Heart Federation 14 years ago as a global effort to raise awareness that heart disease and stroke are the world’s leading causes of death. Each year’s celebrations have a different theme. This year, World Heart Day’s theme is creating heart-healthy environments. The World Heart Federation explains that places in which we live, work and play should not increase our risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). But individuals frequently cannot make heart-healthy choices due to environmental factors, such as the availability of healthy food or smoke-free zones.  This can be a great opportunity to highlight important information in the 50th Anniversary Surgeon General’s Report about secondhand smoke exposure. We know that exposure to secondhand smoke can increase the risk for a heart attack or a stroke.   Read more about this year’s theme. For more information and resources, please visit the Surgeon General 50th Anniversary web site.

People with Mental Health Conditions More Likely to Use E-Cigarettes

People with mental health conditions were twice as likely to use electronic cigarettes, according to a new study. They were also three times more likely to be current users of e-cigarettes than people without mental health conditions. About 15 percent of people with mental health conditions had tried e-cigarettes and about 3 percent were currently using them, compared with 6.6 percent and about 1 percent, respectively, among those without mental health conditions. More than 10,000 Americans were surveyed by the study authors, who found that nearly 28 percent of current smokers said they had mental health conditions, compared with about 13 percent of nonsmokers. More than 60 percent of smokers with mental health disorders said they were likely or very likely to try e-cigarettes in the future, compared with about 45 percent of smokers without mental health conditions, according to the findings published online in the journal Tobacco Control. (HealthDay News, 5/13/14)

Post-Doc Fellow Program NIH

Across the country, 14 newly funded centers will join together to develop a new field of tobacco regulatory science. The NIH seek the best and the brightest students to begin their career in youth tobacco control and to be the first in this new profession. Could you be the ideal applicant? Post-Doc Fellow Program - Regulatory Science - Tobacco Control National Institutes of Health Austin, Texas, United States View View

Early Bird Discount: Point of Sale Training Institute

Reposted at http://www.tobaccodeathray.blogspot.com,

 

The two-day, interactive training is designed for tobacco control and public health workers from state and local health departments and voluntary organizations who want to learn more, get started, or ramp up their point of sale efforts. It will be particularly helpful for those who want to start doing store assessments (surveys) and would like to trial the Store Audit Center software, our web-based mobile data collection system.

October 24-25, 2013, Chapel Hill, NC. REGISTERHERE

 

Counter Tools is offering a 10% discount off of program tuition for participants who have paid their registration on or before August 20, 2013. 

 

 

Candy or Tobacco!

Video from Tobacco Free Florida. Reposted at http://www.tobaccodeathray.blogspot.com,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrsWp-8JZU8

Vidoe on candy-flavored and appearing tobacco products taregeting kids

Tobacco resourse-including ACA and Tobacco

Study Finds E-Cigarettes Used Primarily for Quitting Smoking

Three-quarters of people who use e-cigarettes say their motivation was to replace cigarettes, a new survey finds. People using e-cigarettes believe they are safer than regular cigarettes, the researchers say.

 Is Snus the Same as Dip? Smokers' Perceptions of New Smokeless Tobacco Advertising.  Tobacco Control (Mar 2013). Current smoker responses to snus advertising are not consistent with harm reduction. 

 Toolkit: Tobacco Cessation and the Affordable Care Act.  American Lung Association.  Contains materials and analyses exploring ACA provisions that address tobacco cessation and prevention, as well as factsheets, template letters, and other helpful tools.

·         Fact sheet: The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act and the Affordable Care Act: Implications for Coverage of Tobacco Cessation Benefits.  Tobacco Control Legal Consortium.  Addresses how these federal laws affect insurance coverage for one type of substance use disorder benefits: tobacco cessation benefits.

·         Implementation of tobacco cessation coverage under the Affordable Care Act: Understanding how Private Health Insurance Policies Cover Tobacco Cessation Treatments.  The Georgetown University Health Policy Institute, with funding from the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. Report concludes that many private insurance plans are failing to provide coverage for smoking cessation treatment as required by the Affordable Care Act.

Kenneth Warner Lecture Series

Reposted at http://www.tobaccodeathray.blogspot.com,
The Passion and Power of Young People in the Ongoing Fight Against Tobacco Webinar

On Wednesday, July 24th, Legacy and the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids (CTFK) will host a special youth-led panel discussion, as part of the Kenneth E. Warner Series Lecture, which will highlight the power and passion of youth engagement in tobacco control. Young leaders will discuss the challenges and successes of the movement and, with the upcoming release of the 50th Anniversary of the Surgeon General's report, its significance in the future of tobacco control for years to come.   The live webcast will be archived for your convenience.   Moderator: Ritney Castine, Associate Director of Youth advocacy, CTFK (Former Legacy Youth Board Liaison)    Panelists: Chad Bullock, Founding Director of Forget Tobacco Kaitlyn Reilly, Communications Consultant for Booz Allen Hamilton Anna Santayana, Grassroots Marketing Coordinator for Legacy (Former crew marketer for the truth®tour) Lee Storrow, Managing Director of the NC Alliance for Health and Member of the City Council for North Carolina Chapel Hill (Former Legacy Youth Board Liaison) ·         Gustavo Torrez, Program Manager for the Network for LGBT Health Equity

For more information, please contact Laura Cruzada at lcruzada@legacyforhealth.org or 202-341-0324.

SAVE THE DATE: Wednesday July 24, 2013 from 12:30 PM to 2:00 PM EDT

Smokers may get a break from Obamacare glitch

Posted at MSN.com Reposted at http://www.tobaccodeathray.blogspot.com,

 

Tobacco users are slated to pay penalties under Obama's new health care law, but a computer glitch leads to another implementation delay.

WASHINGTON — Some smokers trying to get coverage next year under President Barack Obama's health care law may get a break from tobacco-use penalties that could have made their premiums unaffordable.

 

The Obama administration — in yet another health care overhaul delay — has quietly notified insurers that a computer system glitch will limit penalties that the law says the companies may charge smokers. A fix will take at least a year to put in place.

Older smokers are more likely to benefit from the glitch, experts say. But depending on how insurers respond to it, it's also possible that younger smokers could wind up facing higher penalties than they otherwise would have.

Some see an emerging pattern of last-minute switches and delays as the administration scrambles to prepare the Oct. 1 launch of new health insurance markets. People who don't have coverage on the job will be able to shop for private insurance, with tax credits to help pay premiums. Small businesses will have their own insurance markets.

Last week, the White House unexpectedly announced a one-year postponement of a major provision in the law that requires larger employers to offer coverage or face fines. Officials cited the complexity of the requirement as well as a desire to address complaints from employers.
For more of this article go to http://news.msn.com/us/smokers-may-get-a-break-from-obamacare-glitch?ocid=ansnews11

Related: Federal govt delays key requirement of Obamacare until 2015
Related: Are non-smokers smarter than smokers?
Related: 1-in-5 US smokers has tried an e-cigarette
 

Position statements on e-cigarettes

Deadline: June 26, 2013
Ohio is exploring the idea of making a position statement regarding e-cigarettes and would like to see some examples from other states. If your state or organization has created a position statement, please share a copy with us.

Editor’s note: Sample communications materials and position statements can be found in the Help Your Peers archives on the TCN’s website, but since this is such a timely and ever-changing topic, we are circulating the request for information once again. Visit the Help Your Peers archive to see responses to past questions on e-cigarettes:

Communicating about new e-cigarette policies – 1/3/13
Fact sheets or hand-outs on e-cigarettes – 5/1/09

Federal Tobacco Tax Hike Would Reduce Smoking, Raise Revenue

Reposted at http://www.tobaccodeathray.blogspot.com,

 

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

WASHINGTON, DC – A report issued today by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities provides important new support for increasing the federal tobacco tax, finding it would be both highly effective in reducing smoking and a reliable and predictable source of revenue to fund early childhood education initiatives proposed by President Obama.  The report also finds that the tobacco tax increase would deliver the greatest benefits to lower-income people, including health benefits from reductions in smoking and educational benefits from expanding early childhood education.  These conclusions refute tobacco industry claims that a tobacco tax increase is not a reliable source of revenue and would hurt lower-income people.

The combined policy of a tobacco tax increase and expansion of early childhood education “is designed to benefit people both at the ‘front end,’ by expanding opportunity, and at the ‘back end,’ by improving health and extending lives,” the report concludes.

This report demonstrates that the President’s proposal to increase the federal cigarette tax by 94 cents per pack to fund early childhood education would be a “win-win” for our nation’s children, improving their health and education.  The proposal also calls for increasing taxes on other tobacco products.  The tobacco tax increases would raise $78.1 billion over 10 years, according to the Office of Management and Budget.

The new report found the tobacco tax increase would:

·         Be an effective way to reduce smoking:  “Tobacco taxes are a proven strategy to reducing smoking, particularly among teenagers and low-income people.  Given the high health costs of tobacco use, reducing smoking rates would lead to substantial health gains.”

 ·         Be a reliable and predictable source of revenue:  The report finds that the higher tobacco tax would raise the revenue needed to fund early childhood education, even while reducing smoking.  “The President’s proposal takes into account this positive behavioral response and assumes that revenue falls at the end of the ten-year budget window.  Even so, the estimated revenue is sufficient to pay for the proposal over ten years.”

·         Deliver significant health benefits to lower-income people.  “The health benefits of a higher tobacco tax are progressive.  Because low-income people are more sensitive to changes in tobacco prices, they will be more likely than high-income people to smoke less, quit, or never start in response to a tax increase.”  The report also concludes, “Expanding early childhood education – in particular for low- and moderate-income children – as the President has proposed is a very progressive use of the revenue from raising the tobacco tax.”

Study after study has shown that increasing the tobacco tax is one of the most effective ways to reduce smoking and other tobacco use, especially among kids.  Even tobacco companies admit in their own documents that tobacco tax increases reduce youth smoking, which is why they vehemently oppose them.  Economic research has found that every 10 percent increase in the price of cigarettes reduces youth smoking by six or seven percent and overall cigarette consumption by three to five percent.

The health and economic benefits of a federal tobacco tax increase were confirmed in a 2012 report by the Congressional Budget Office.  The CBO found that a 50-cent increase in the federal tobacco tax would raise substantial new revenue while prompting nearly 1.4 million adult smokers to quit by 2021, saving tens of thousands of lives and reducing health care costs, including for the Medicaid program. Based on the CBO’s statement that a $1 tax increase would roughly double those benefits, we estimate that a 94-cent cigarette tax increase would prompt 2.6 million adult smokers to quit and save 18,000 lives by 2021.

In addition to these gains from helping current smokers quit, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids has estimated that a 94-cent increase in the federal cigarette tax would:

·         Prevent 1.7 million kids from becoming addicted adult smokers

·         Prevent 626,000 premature deaths from these reductions in youth smoking alone

·         Save $42 billion in future health care costs from these reductions in youth smoking.

In addition to the many health and revenue benefits, national and state polls have consistently found strong public support for substantial increases in tobacco taxes, with Democrats, Republicans and Independents alike expressing support.

Tobacco use is the number on cause of preventable death in the United States, killing more than 400,000 people and costing $96 billion in health care bills each year.  The evidence is clear: The proposed increase in federal tobacco taxes would be both a health win and an economic win for our nation.

Will U.S. tobacco fields give way to fields of chickpeas?

This exciting CBS This Morning focus report on Tobacco Farmers Turning to planting chickpeas. Reposted at http://www.tobaccodeathray.blogspot.com,

Go to http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505263_162-57587762/will-u.s-tobacco-fields-give-way-to-fields-of-chickpeas/ for full video.

 (CBS News) Hummus, a staple of Middle Eastern diets for centuries, is exploding in popularity across the U.S., prompting an uptick in chickpea crops, primarily in the Pacific Northwest. Last year, the U.S. harvest of chickpeas, the primary ingredient in hummus, was up 51 percent from the previous year.

Ronen Zohar, the CEO of Sabra, the lead hummus producer in the U.S., hopes to expand chickpea farming to tobacco country -- namely, Virginia -- to meet growing demand.

"We want to make sure we have enough chickpeas," Zohar told CBS News' Chip Reid, "And we want to reduce the risk we have now by growing chickpeas only in one part of the country."

72-year-old James Brown, who has been working his family's farm in southern Virginia for over five decades, told Reid he is experimenting with planting chickpeas, despite his family's rich background in the heart of tobacco country.

"My father was a 'bacco farmer, my grandfather was a 'bacco farmer and my great granddaddy was a tobacco farmer," Brown said. "This is my first time planting chickpeas.

How the tiny chickpea is beating big tobacco

Sabra's largest hummus plant is in Virginia, just south of Richmond and not far from James Brown's farm. Researchers at nearby Virginia State University are trying to determine which of the many types of chickpea varieties grow best in the Southern climate. The research team, funded in part by Sabra, invited Brown and other farmers in the area to join the experiment.

Sabra CEO Zohar believes encouraging Virginia-based farmers to grow chickpeas is "wonderful solution" to address both the decreasing demand for tobacco and increased demand for hummus.

For his part, Brown planted only four acres of chickpeas on his 300-acre farm this year, but if the harvest goes well, he hopes to plant more in the future, with the hope of raking in "some big bucks" thanks to the U.S. hummus boom.

The 2012 Tobacco Cessation National Dissemination Project Final Report

This report details the American Academy of Family Physicians’ 2012 Tobacco Cessation National Dissemination Project which assisted 50 family medicine practices across the country in making system changes to integrate tobacco cessation activities into their daily office routines.

http://www.aafp.org/online/etc/medialib/aafp_org/documents/clinical/pub_health/askact/officechampfinalreport.Par.0001.File.dat/office-champions-final-report.pdf
Reposted at http://www.tobaccodeathray.blogspot.com,

Strong Advocacy Effort Needed to Help Smokers with Mental Illness By Jill Williams, M.D., and Marie Verna

Reposted at http://www.tobaccodeathray.blogspot.com,

Original posting http://www.nami.org/template.cfm?Section=home%20&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=152001&lstid=274

In February, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in collaboration with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), issued a report about the rates of smoking among adults with some form of mental illness, Vital Signs: Current Cigarette Smoking Among Adults Aged ≥18 Years with Mental Illness — United States, 2009–2011. The report finds that 36 percent of adults with a mental illness are cigarette smokers, compared with only 21 percent of adults who do not have a mental illness. This translates to about 16 million smokers with mental illness in the United States today.

This report is historic for many reasons, but the most important is that it clearly reveals the lack of attention given to the needs of people managing mental illness by our health system. Now that we mental health advocates—both individuals with mental illness and those without—see these stark numbers, our response must be strong, focused and forceful.

Although the CDC routinely publishes reports on smoking rates among the general population, this analysis is the first to also include smoking rates among individuals with mental illness. For the last 50 years, an area of public health termed “Tobacco Control” has been effectively reducing smoking rates in the U.S. through policy, public education and regulation. Smokers with mental illness, however, have benefitted very little from these efforts and, even today, have very few opportunities to access services that could help them quit.

Based on the trends in the CDC report, smokers with mental illness could easily represent the majority of U.S. smokers in the near future. This has many serious implications for individuals with mental illness.

As smoking becomes less common, it will no longer be considered the community norm. We know that smokers often experience discrimination in housing, but for people with mental illness, who are already struggling to find jobs and housing, the challenge will be even greater. Not only do employers prefer to hire non-smokers, landlords prefer to rent to non-smokers due to lower damage and insurance costs. Programs that provide multi-unit, publicly funded housing, are already forming policies that prohibit smoking (not even in one’s own apartment) because second-hand smoke circulates through a building’s airways and poses a risk to all residents. Increasingly, landlords are discriminating against smokers for the simple reason that being a cigarette smoker has become a marker for individuals who have a mental illness or other substance use disorder, adding to the stigma of having a mental illness.

The financial implications are great as studies confirm that people in low-income brackets spend up to one-third of their monthly income on cigarettes. But the most important reason to think about addressing tobacco is that consumers who smoke have a 50 percent chance of dying from a tobacco-caused illness. This is at least 25 years before the average age of death among those who do not smoke. People who struggle to overcome the symptoms of a mental illness don’t deserve to die from tobacco use.

As advocates, we have many ways to address this problem, just as public health advocates had when they brought about change in the general population. But we’ll need to start by acknowledging that within the existing mental health system, unique barriers exist, and we’ll have to start by cleaning up our own house.

Professionals in the treatment community have been slow to change. Most behavioral health treatment programs (including both mental health and addictions) still do not offer routine access to tobacco treatment in their range of services. Many professionals are not up-to-date on advances that have been made in tobacco treatment, therefore, offer old fashioned, ineffective approaches.

State programs that offer free or low-cost treatments still target middle class community smokers who are able to quit with brief interventions. But smokers who have a mental illness often smoke more cigarettes per day and are more addicted than other community smokers, warranting a more intensive treatment approach. This means that, although most states invest significant dollars into tobacco control programs, they never see a return on that investment because they’re targeting the wrong people. The bottom line is that these programs in fact, may not benefit the smokers who need help the most.

Perhaps one of the biggest barriers is that smoking remains part of the culture in most mental health and residential facilities. In partial hospital programs, daily schedules take into account the needs of smokers. In inpatient programs, consumers are allowed outside only during smoke breaks. In housing programs, we expect people who want to quit to live side-by-side with people who smoke, a pack of cigarettes a day. In case management programs, we consider it our jobs to drive people to stores to buy cigarettes.

At the same time, mental health professional and family advocacy organizations have hesitated to demand tobacco treatments. Indeed, some have continued to lobby for exemptions to smoke-free air provisions for hospitals and other mental health treatment facilities.

Collectively, we, as advocates, have failed to raise this issue onto the national agenda. When we buy cigarettes for others, or remain silent because of our own ambivalence, we allow another generation of our loved ones to be lost to this deadly addiction. The same rules and standards we apply to other addictions should be applied to tobacco use whether in the hospital, the clinic or the home. We should feel the same outrage about the lack of services for smoking cessation as we feel about the lack of crisis, housing or employment services.

Community-based initiatives for addressing tobacco are a foundation of current CDC best practices and are critical in transforming the social norms around the way tobacco is promoted and used. Community tobacco coalitions help to build demand for services, strengthen advocacy, move treatment efforts forward and enhance the importance of the issue among administrators and key decision makers.

Creating strong coalitions by partnering with individuals and community agencies will facilitate more rapid systems change by making tobacco use in mental health systems less desirable, less acceptable and less accessible. The same strategies that have been effective in targeting tobacco in our communities need to be applied to our mental health system.

People living with mental illness, organizations advocating for those individuals, families, provider agencies federal, state and local government allies are all essential. Through an organized advocacy effort we can begin to undo the legacy of smoking and mental illness. This will require that we work together to disseminate education, develop local policy, garner resources and, most importantly, ensure that every smoker who has a mental illness can access evidence-based treatment to try to quit.

The CDC/SAMHSA report, while the first of its kind, cannot be the last word from us. As people who care deeply about the wellbeing of those among us who manage serious, life-changing mental illnesses, we must use the hard facts it reveals to fight the hard battle we face in changing our public health system and ourselves.

Jill Williams is a Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Division of Addiction Psychiatry at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Marie Verna is a Program Support Coordinator at UMDNJ-University Behavioral Health Care and MPAP Candidate at Rutgers University Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy.