Tobacco-Free Marion County
GRASSROOTS NEWSLETTER
January- February 2008
Volume 6 Number 4
It’s a big news newsletter for Marion
County tobacco free
advocates. First, our grant proposal to
the Arkansas Tobacco Settlement Commission for youth media outreach was
funded. This will enable us to respond
to the county schools having no funded tobacco prevention curriculum this year
and to the truly tragic data showing Marion
County with the highest smoking
during pregnancy rate in the state.
Research has shown that media literacy for tobacco cartel strategies to
target youth is an effective prevention tool.
In 1998, when 9 out of 10 smokers started as teens, the tobacco industry
agreed to quit marketing to kids. 10
years later 9 out of 10 nicotine addicts still start as teens and the industry
has merely changed their target marketing techniques.
The next big news is our new website! www.tobaccofreemc.com is now up and running with new opportunities
to challenge tobacco. There are links to cessation opportunities for people
wanting to quit and for those wanting to help someone else overcome a nicotine
addiction. Originally in our workplan for this grant year was an effort to stem
internet sales of tobacco to youth.
However, states’ Attorneys General have pressured parcel delivery
companies to eliminate delivery of tobacco except to licensed dealers. What we have added on the web are tools for
parents, and youth, to understand internet safety and the many risks online in
a rapidly changing world. Visit tobaccofreemc.com
and brief yourself on the latest science, ethics, and politics involved in
challenging a rogue industry. Let us
know if we can to save a stamp and send the newsletter electronically. Call 1-870-427-2620 or email tfmc@marioncounty.com
.
Newsworthy also are Marion
County tobacco retailers who
have collected only one illegal sale to a minor in the last year. (Actually at the time of printing that rate
had improved to NO illegal sales between 01-19-07 and 02-05-08!)
The Arkansas Tobacco Control Board received funding for new officers with voter
mandated Act 1 of 2000 and has
distinguished Arkansas as having
the lowest rate of illegal sales in the nation.
ATCB officers monitor tobacco retailers’ compliance with the laws
statewide and are due a round of congratulations. Unfortunately, laws in 2003 and rule changes
in 2006 eliminated effective government signage and put the onus of clerk
training on the ATCB while forgiving retailers for illegal sales. Advocates know that effective tobacco
prevention involves significantly raising tobacco taxes, creating tobacco free
spaces, and market reform reducing youth access. Enforcing existing laws goes a long way toward
preventing tobacco’s influence from spreading.
Arkansas high school
smoking rates fell from 35.8% in 2000 to 20.4 in 2007. These dedicated officers
have made a real difference in Arkansas.
Alcohol sales have returned to Marion
County after more than half a
century. While many of our neighbors are
sure that alcohol is a larger problem than tobacco prevention, you can be sure
that they are quite wrong. Tobacco kills
one in five of all Americans. Tobacco
kills more people than alcohol, illegal drugs, auto accidents, murder, suicide,
and AIDS combined. The consequences of alcohol
may be occasionally dramatic but the statistical likelihood is that you are
much more likely to die from exposure to tobacco than alcohol. As little as 1 to 3 cigarettes a day begins
the cascade of cardiovascular risk factors for heart disease or stroke and
significantly increases the risk of most cancers. 30 minutes exposure to secondhand smoke
causes physical dysfunction in nonsmokers indistinguishable from pack a day
smokers. Persons can drink
responsibly. There is no safe
cigarette.
TFMC cannot advertise products but in our forays throughout
the community we are hearing good things about the cessation drug Chantix. Local pharmacist Dr. Gary Fancher provides
some insight for people experiencing stomach upset or difficulty sleeping using
the drug. Chantix must be taken with
food and plenty of water. Quitters will
want to be extra hydrated anyway while the poisons from tobacco addiction are
being flushed from the body. This is
good news for those wanting to become tobacco free!
TFMC has partnered with the University
of Arkansas for Medical
Sciences (UAMS) in educating health care providers about spit tobacco and oral
cancer. Marion
County providers received
materials including a FAX Back referral packet. The UAMS College of Public
Health operates a free phone counseling service for Arkansas
residents wanting to quit tobacco use, smoked or spit. The FAX Back system allows a health care
provider to ask a few intake questions and fax this HIPPA compliant form to
UAMS from where trained cessation interventionists respond within a week. Counselors evaluate an individual’s nicotine
dependency and help formulate personalized quit plan. They arrange for free
medication if eligible, and follow up to assist quitters to set a quit date and
stay tobacco free. Remember, 1-866-NOW
QUIT can help smokers follow through with the decision to overcome a nicotine
addiction. Tobacco free is only a phone
call away.
Representatives from TFMC attended a community public health
symposium in Little Rock recently
presented by the KICK (Keeping Illegal
Cigarettes from Kids) Coalition.
Speakers included Onjewel Smith from the Echo Hollow Group in
Mississippi speaking on expanding coalitions, Laura McDowell from the Arkansas
Department of Education on Coordinated School Health , Jimmy Parks from the
Arkansas Burn Center on Cigarettes and Fire Safety, and Dr. Gary Wheeler from
Arkansas’ Children’s Hospital on the influence of smoking in film and the
Smokefree Movies Action Network.
In 1998 tobacco companies agreed in the MSA
to no longer compensate smoking or brand placement in movies. Yet, since that time, smoking in movies has
actually increased and increased most in G, PG, and PG-13 films.
A Dartmouth
study published in 2004 in the British journal Lancet tracked youth
attitudes and what films they had seen over a period of years. Alarmingly, children of nonsmoking parents
were most likely to try tobacco because of exposure to films. Dr. Wheeler noted, “Kids who had seen the
most smoking scenes were more likely to start smoking independent of all other
risk factors.” The study concluded that
as many as 390,000 kids a year were enticed into nicotine addiction by smoking
in films. Even having villains smoking
prompted tobacco use; the anti-hero is often the character with whom at-risk
youth identify.
TFMC film critic Sylvia Wise shares, “It’s confusing for
young people to see tobacco use in DVDs.
Role models in movies influence behavior and society in ways we don’t
even realize at the time.”
While much advocacy
and activism was outlined, Dr. Wheeler encouraged that parental involvement in
film viewing is the first line of defense for the misconception that tobacco
use is in any way desirable.
Tobacco Free Marion County
Po
Box 188
Pyatt AR 72672
Visit www.tobaccofreemc.com Challenge tobacco Visit
www.tobaccofreemc.com Challenge tobacco