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GRASSROOTS NEWSLETTER

sowing grassroots

Mar-April 2008 Volume 6 number 6

We’ve been so busy it is unclear where to start writing this newsletter.

We spoke to the last of the 8^th graders at Bruno-Pyatt for a focus group presentation and we had a packed day at Yellville-Summit meeting with Ms. Edwards’ science classes. This has been a load of fun. I hope we get to continue next year. Teachers are aware of this, but there is a certain thrill when someone all of a sudden understands the issues you’re trying to communicate. This is especially gratifying when the message you want to share is that the tobacco industry is depending on youth to be the “replacement smokers” for those 1,200 Americans that die every day from tobacco related disease.

We’ve also started radio outreach to compliment the full page ads we’ve been running in the last few editions of the school newspapers. Check out KMAC and KCTT for a listen and we’ll have them posted on the website soon.

Before that, volunteers from TFMC attended the Arkansas Cancer Summit IX for a day filled with info and community. Tobacco is responsible for 30% of all cancers and 87% of lung cancer. This is made most alarming knowing that most tobacco related morbidity is actually the result of cardiovascular disease. Remember that one in five of all deaths are attributable to tobacco and that for each life lost there are another 20 people suffering from at least one serious tobacco related disease.

So why haven’t our policy makers done more to challenge this pandemic? Good question.

The Arkansas Cancer Coalition encourages everyone to avoid all exposure to tobacco, eat a healthy diet, drink in moderation, exercise, protect yourself from the sun and sexually transmitted diseases, and get regular cancer screenings. The Cancer Summit is always a great conference and this year included the Susan G. Komen BreastCare Luncheon and awards banquet. Our media coordinator took the liberty of posting a slide show on YouTube you can link to on our website.

In the spirit of keeping our nose to the wind, we have to report that there have been some alarming actions taken toward the cessation drug Chantix. The U.S. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has said drivers of commercial motor vehicles should not use the anti-smoking drug because of its potential side effects. This advisory comes right on the heels of the Federal Aviation Administration ban of the drug for airplane pilots and air traffic controllers. This unfortunate development only serves to reinforce the reality that there is no silver bullet to overcoming nicotine addiction. Research has shown that the most successful quit attempts come with little or no preparation. Studies of the human genome have identified genes linked to not only a propensity to nicotine addiction but also lung cancer. A successful quitter has to be committed to staying tobacco free. This is why it is so important to develop a community norm where young people never feel that tobacco use is in anyway desirable or acceptable and nicotine addicts are not faced with cues to use at every turn.

We should all know the mantra for effective tobacco prevention: policy change creating tobacco free public spaces, significantly increased tobacco taxes, marketing reform reducing the industry's access to youth, and support for cessation for those able to overcome a nicotine addiction. Be sure to share the free Quitline for smokers and spitters: 1-866-NOW-QUIT

TFMC was a major partner with the Brown Church Extension Club for the Community Baby Shower this year. Christy Halliday has partnered with us for our media outreach armed with DVDs and literature about the dangers of exposure to tobacco during pregnancy. Thanks to Christy for her efforts there and as Mothers and Infants Program Nurse, providing an invaluable service because there is no practicing Ob-Gyn in the county.

And this makes a nice segue into TFMC travels farther afield. Representatives joined a limited number of activists trained to investigate the millions of tobacco industry documents at the fifth annual Tobacco Documents Workshop at the University of California San Francisco, May 16 and 17. Titled “Putting the Tobacco Industry’s Words to Work for You,” the conference was hosted by the Center for Tobacco Control Research and sponsored by the American Legacy Foundation. A group of national and international attendees from Berkeley to India were treated with an overview of policy change by veteran smoke free lawyer Richard Barnes during a Friday workshop. Barnes made special note that policy makers respond to money and pain and “…tobacco control advocates don’t have any money so we have to understand how to show them pain.”

The Saturday session involved hands-on document demonstrations using the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library online. The collections are comprised of tobacco industry documents from the late 1800's up through the present with the bulk of the collections dated 1950 through 2002. The Legacy Library has an accessible but sophisticated search engine for 8,264,666 integrated documents. In addition to the keyboard briefing, attendees were treated with a broad range of speakers showing how the documents can be used in advocacy. We can all recognize that the term “replacement smoker” comes from RJ Reynolds documents on marketing strategy for addicting children. The UCSF Tobacco Control Archives can be found online at www.library.ucsf.edu/tobacco/ .

We’ve also traveled closer to home for the 5^th annual Clearing the Air in Communities of Color conference at the Pine Bluff convention Center. Hosted by the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff’s Minority Initiative Sub-recipient Grant Office, the two day conference featured speakers such as Kevin Collins from the Centers for Disease Control’s Office on Smoking and Health, Onjewel Smith from Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights, and Comedy Central’s “Laughter Advocate,” lung cancer survivor, Rene Hicks.

Tobacco Free Marion County’s media coordinator, J.R. Few, spoke on the panel leading discussion for the Workshop titled Tobacco Control from Their Perspective. Says Few, “I’m honored by the invitation to share at this conference. People of color suffer disproportionately from tobacco but the industry is well aware that the poor and uneducated of all ethnicities are more likely to smoke and less likely to quit. Uniting to recognize where the nicotine industry profits is important to the public health.” Tobacco is a business run by ruthless profiteers with roots in slavery and genocide of native peoples. Even today when incremental changes in western society move toward a tobacco free community the industry gears up for the growth markets overseas in developing nations; a market the World Health Organization predicts will cost 10 billion lives in the next decade.