Great American Smokeout--TODAY

Happy Great American Smokeout! Today we celebrate the people who have made the brave and life-saving decision to transition to a life free of tobacco.

Those who quit for today’s 24 hour period will need support to keep the healthy lifestyle change moving. Please take the time to connect with those who are quitting and offer your assistance, whether it’s directing them to nicotine replacement medications, checking in on their quit attempt progress, or just offering up words of encouragement.

Speaking of...the White House released this short video congratulating those making a quit attempt:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/11/17/president-obama-congratulations-everyone-taking-part-todays-great-american-smokeout

And don’t forget: BACCHUS is here to help campuses make the move to tobacco free and to better promote cessation.

Thanks again for all you do to make campuses healthier and safer places!

The Tobacco Team at BACCHUS

Resource for Tobacco Prevention: The ATTACK Toolkit

The ATTACK website (www.ATTACKtobacco.org) serves as a resource for organizations, agencies, college campuses, etc. wanting to create an ATTACK plan to counter tobacco industry targeting tactics aimed at young adults. The toolkit offers latest information about the tobacco industry marketing tactics; best intervention strategies in policy, lifestyle branding, community education and cessation. In addition, it provides tools to create research and evaluation plans. The toolkit also hosts a password protected networking feature so that tobacco control professionals can share tools and collaborate with each other.

ATTACK Toolkit Training Webinar
Date: Thursday, July 1st, 2010
Time: 10:00 am - 11:30 am (PST)
RSVP: email Alex Tyannikov atyannikov@sacbreathe.org
This interactive training is designed for tobacco control advocates and enthusiasts working with youth and young adults. In the training, we will review content and navigation of the ATTACK Toolkit. After the training you will be comfortable with utilizing tools in the toolkit, connecting with other tobacco control advocates and updating your profile.

Enforcement for Tobacco Policies

We have worked with many campuses developing and implementing tobacco-free and smoke-free policies. Every campus is unique and their readiness for policy change varies. Many campuses have had a smooth transition to and high compliance with the new policies when they have built in an education/awareness period prior to the policy start date. This period is used to inform faculty, staff, students, and guests of the upcoming change, to highlight the health benefits of the new policy, and to promote cessation services and resources.

Campuses have also found it helpful to include a grace period after the policy begins. During this time, violators receive educational information about the policy including the reasons for the policy, the consequences at the end of the grace period, and cessation resources.

The policy does need to have some teeth in that after a certain grace period, violators need to be issued citations. Ideally this would be handled by those who currently enforce other campus policies. The smoke/tobacco-free policy needs to be treated with the same respect as other policies. If Resident Advisors cite students for resident hall violations (alcohol, noise, etc.), they should also cite students smoking near their dorms. Although the campus/community police may not like it, try to build a partnership where they are willing to enforce the smoke/tobacco-free policy on just a one random day each week. Nobody wants to be the tobacco police 24/7, but random days of enforcement where citations are issued will help curb the problems.

Sample Citation Progression...

• First offense: written warning
• Second offense: written citation, $25 fine
• Third offense: written citation, $50 fine and meeting with Dean of Students (for student violators) or Campus President/Director of HR (faculty/staff violators)
• Fourth offense: written citation, $75 fine – academic probation (students), one week suspension (faculty/staff)
• Fifth offense: expulsion from school (students), termination from employment (faculty/staff)
• While the enforcement/citation measures are needed to ensure the policy is followed, continue to emphasize the purpose of the policy is to respect the health of everyone on campus – not to “catch” smokers in the act. Research shows that SHS kills approx. 50,000 nonsmoking U.S. adults per year, and smokers need to respect everyone’s right to breathe clean air.
• Emphasize to smokers that the policy isn’t anti-smoker, it’s anti-smoke. Recognize that tobacco use is an addiction and adjusting to the policy could be difficult, but similar to smoke-free restaurants and airplanes – they need to make the adjustment to respect the health of others.
• Make cessation resources widely available for those who want to quit.
  

Certification for Tobacco-Free Campus Policy

NEW! Does your campus have a strong tobacco-free or smoke-free policy? Get certified by BACCHUS!

The BACCHUS Network™ is currently accepting applications for a new Tobacco-Free Campus Policy Certification. This certification recognizes college and university campuses that have implemented strong tobacco policies, demonstrating excellence in their commitment to the health and safety of students, staff, faculty, and visitors.

The Tobacco-Free Campus Policy Certification honors campuses at three different levels. A full description of each level is included in the announcement brochure, though a summary is listed here:

Silver Award: No smoking is allowed on campus grounds or in campus-owned vehicles. Tobacco is not sold, marketed, or distributed on campus grounds. Sponsorships and promotions from tobacco companies are not allowed.

Gold Award: No tobacco (smoking or smokeless) is allowed on campus grounds or in campus-owned vehicles. Tobacco is not sold, marketed, or distributed on campus grounds. Sponsorships and promotions from tobacco companies are not allowed.

Diamond Award: All conditions of the 'Gold Level' are fulfilled. The campus divests all holdings in tobacco companies and does not accept any direct funding from tobacco companies for any purpose. Sponsorships and promotions from tobacco companies are not allowed.

This award will provide campuses with recognition that can be helpful in recruiting students, community learners, as well as grant opportunities from prominent health-related organizations and agencies. BACCHUS will provide campuses with an award logo that can be displayed on websites and in printed materials. Applications are due by January 31, 2010.

For more information and an application, please visit: www.tobaccofreeU.org and click on the links under Certification for Tobacco-Free Campus Policy.

BACCHUS Tobacco Position in Montana

BACCHUS has an open position as the Montana Project Director. This position will be based in Missoula, Montana.

The Montana Project Director will work with the Montana Collegiate Tobacco Prevention Initiative staff to accomplish grant activities in the following four major areas:

Oversight and Reporting

• Financial claim reporting and management of funds
• Submit quarterly program reports
• Submit annual report
• Create and submit annual application for funding
  

Providing Training and Technical Assistance to Campuses

• Provide technical assistance and training on grant initiatives to the participating campuses
• Recruit new campuses to participate in grant
• Coordinate materials orders and fulfillment to campuses
• Coordinate and co-present trainings for participating campuses
• Host 2-3 meetings of participants per year
• Provide site visits as needed
• Visit the BACCHUS national office in Denver for training as needed
  

Creating Partnerships

• Serve on joint agency projects and committees with Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services Tobacco Use Prevention Program (MTUPP) and other State Contractors’ personnel as needed
• Maintain consistent contact with the MTUPP project officer and staff
• Represent BACCHUS at local and state meetings concerning student health and safety issues
  

Other Provisions: This ten month full-time position is grant funded and may change over time based upon funding opportunities or restraints. Employment is subject to available funding as well as the normal supervisory items per the letter of agreement. The BACCHUS Network™ is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, religious preference, sexual orientation or physical ability.

For a complete job description, click here and look on the right hand side under, "Position Openings."

FDA Report on E-cigarettes

The Food and Drug Administration released information on the potential health risks associated with electronic cigarettes, also known as "e-cigarettes." This is the first testing conducted on the new products and the liquid used to create the vapor.

A press release and additional materials can be found on FDA's Website at http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/PublicHealthFocus/ucm172906.htm


-posted by Tad Spencer

Tobacco Position at BACCHUS

BACCHUS is now accepting applications for a position on our tobacco team. For a complete job description and application instructions, please visit tobaccofreeU.org and look in the "What's New" section.

Lung cancer increasing due to cigarette design

Yes, it’s true…the blog is back! Rejoice! I know you all have been waiting for some new tobacco information. Well, I will not disappoint…

A new study conducted by the University of California at San Diego School of Medicine suggests that an increase in nitrosamine levels in American cigarettes has led to an increase in lung cancer. The researchers compared American and Australia cigarettes and found the only major difference to be their nitrosamine levels, with American cigarettes having much higher levels. This is important info because lung cancer death rates are lower in Australia than the United States. The study also says that lung cancer rates could be cut in half with stricter regulation of cigarette composition. For the full article, click here.

Source: CBS News

- posted by Chris Miller

“Social” Smokers

A recently published study analyzed the demographics of intermittent, or “social,” smokers. According to the study, “People with high education and high income, Spanish-speaking Hispanics, and women were the most likely to be intermittent rather than daily smokers.”

It is clear that more can be done to encourage cessation for intermittent smokers.

These smokers may be more "hidden" on campus, as they may primarily use tobacco in social settings off-campus. This is a potential obstacle to creating targeted marketing to this population--simply identifying the population. Are there ways to connect with this group and tailor health promotions and cessation efforts to them? What are campuses currently doing to address the “social smoking” phenomenon?

Bring BACCHUS Expertise to Your Campus

Looking to improve your comprehensive prevention programming and need some ideas on how to do it? BACCHUS can help. The BACCHUS Network™ is offering staff facilitated trainings. Take advantage of these affordable opportunities to bring BACCHUS expertise to your campus. Prices range from $1000 for half-day consultation to $2500 for a day-and-half training and includes travel.

Campus Site Visit & Consultation
BACCHUS will send a senior staff member on a site visit to consult with you, your chief student affairs officer, your students, your campus or community task force, and other key stakeholders to assess program strengths and suggest ways to improve prevention efforts. This structured visit will include a follow up report to assist you with future strategic planning, writing for grants, and budget development.

Screening and Brief Intervention (SBI) Training for Student Life Staff
Screening and Brief Intervention (SBI) has emerged as an effective tool to reduce college alcohol abuse. This training provides a brief screening tool and incorporates motivational interviewing techniques to assist student life staff in having intentional conversations with students. Participants will leave with tools for implementing SBI and resources for assisting students to consider a behavior change.

Certified Peer Educator (CPE) Training
Does the idea of bringing in our national trainer to conduct BACCHUS CPE Training for your campus sound appealing? You can utilize the convenient and affordable option of having The BACCHUS Network™ come to your campus and conduct the training. A BACCHUS staff member will work with you every step of the way to plan the CPE training. The independently evaluated CPE program has increased knowledge, confidence and skills in peer educators completing the training. For less than the cost of many national speakers who present for an hour, you can have a twelve-hour training that empowers your students to commit to healthy and safe lifestyle choices.

Tobacco Cessation Program Training
Tobacco cessation for young adults is a challenging piece of the campus tobacco control puzzle. BACCHUS staff members have expertise in providing cessation efforts on campus. A full-day training includes the top 10 list of campus cessation efforts including: assessment; empathy for addiction; Stages of Change; working with health and counseling centers; medications; cessation groups; technology; targeted promotion; events; staff involvement; and national resources. Participants will leave with strategies for implementing a comprehensive cessation program on campus.

For more information on fees and scheduling, please contact Ann Quinn-Zobeck, Director of Education and Training, at ann@bacchusnetwork.org or 303-871-0901.

Great American Spit Out

Based on the success of the American Cancer Society’s Great American Smokeout, health professionals created the Great American Spit Out, an annual celebration that coincides with Through with Chew Week (the third full week of February). This day encourages those that use spit/smokeless tobacco to quit for a day or longer. Tobacco companies are looking to expand their smokeless tobacco market, so campuses need to be ready.

Through with Chew Week 2009: February 15 - 21
Great American Spit Out: February 19

Don’t know much about spit tobacco? No problem! Here are a few items that can help your peer educators, staff, and campus population.

Visit http://www.tobaccofreeu.org/store/ for more details.

Spit It Out “program-in-a-box”: This set comes complete with a PowerPoint presentation (ready to integrate into “clicker” software), a facilitator’s guide, brochures, and quit kits. Perfect for educating student groups, athletic teams, or a tobacco task force!

Quit the Spit pamphlets: This pamphlet is a quick and easy guide to the health effects of spit tobacco and tips for quitting. Be sure your health and wellness centers have these on hand.

Spit Quit Kits: These re-sealable bags contain a Quit the Spit pamphlet, a Medications Options pamphlet, sugar-free gum, toothpicks, and tips for quitting. Feel free to add items to these kits to make them more campus/community specific.

The BACCHUS Tobacco Store also has lots of promotional items to help boost interest in your Spit Out events. Choose from toothpicks, sunflower seeds, gum, pens, water bottles, and more.

You can also download the Tobacco Materials Catalog here: http://www.tobaccofreeu.org/documents/TobaccoCatalog08-09.pdf

Happy programming!

-posted by Tad Spencer

Green Isn't Good Enough

This article in the environmentally friendly Plenty magazine discusses the ongoing popularity of the Natural American Spirit cigarettes and “natural” tobacco farming. Even though the tobacco is pesticide free, the net result is not that different than administering an alcohol swab prior to a lethal injection. It’s still tobacco; it still has nicotine; it still has tar, carcinogens and carbon monoxide. Oh yeah, and it is ultimately owned by Reynolds American, Inc., the second largest tobacco manufacturer in the U.S.

Everyone is jumping on the sustainability bandwagon, even tobacco companies. The article is good to remind people that much environmental destruction and social injustice are a direct result of tobacco farming. By next year, 87% of tobacco will be grown in developing countries. Despite “good guy” public relations efforts by the tobacco companies (including building schools in developing nations), the overall harm done to the world as a whole far outweighs any purported benefit.

I encourage students to think critically about the full scope of tobacco industry practices and to question the legitimacy of “natural” tobacco.

http://www.plentymag.com/features/2008/12/the_green_cigarette.php

-posted by Tad Spencer

The More Things Change…

The Lane Medical Library at Stanford University’s School of Medicine has compiled an extensive gallery of cigarette advertising over the years. Many of these ads date back to the 1950s and earlier. For an especially disturbing experience, look through the collection marked “Then and Now.” This will show you precisely how many ad concepts have never disappeared; they simply get rehashed in the name of nostalgia.

http://lane.stanford.edu/tobacco/index.html

-posted by Tad Spencer

Great American Smokeout

Today is the American Cancer Society’s Great American Smokeout, an annual tradition where smokers are encouraged to quit for 24 hours. If that is successful, they should try two days, then four, then eight, etc.

This is a day where we remember those that we have lost to tobacco-related illness. It is also a day where we honor those who are fighting for their lives to escape the grips of the most powerful addiction we know.

Congratulations to those who are working to quit and transition to a life free of tobacco. At BACCHUS, it is our honor to help you in that process.

Please visit our tobacco site: www.tobaccofreeU.org

-posted by Tad Spencer and the BACCHUS Tobacco Team

Tobacco Industry Continues to Target Females

A year after RJ Reynolds introduced its Camel No. 9 brand of “fashionable” cigarettes, Philip Morris is responding with new Virginia Slims “purse packs.” These smaller cigarettes come in a case specifically designed for carrying in purses and handbags.

Story:
http://www.jointogether.org/news/headlines/inthenews/2008/phillip-morris-to-release.html

So far, we have not seen a significant increase in college female smoking rates. However, if the industry is putting dollars toward development of these products, we should pay attention.

Have women on campus noticed an increase in marketing toward them? It might be worthwhile for a campus to conduct surveys to measure the amount and placement of tobacco marketing encountered by all students.

-posted by Tad Spencer

Ok so you only smoke a couple of cigarettes a week – no big deal, right? Actually…

Even if you’re a healthy college student, smoking just one cigarette impairs how your arteries function over the course of the next few days. A recent study showed that the arteries of nine college students who smoke less than a pack a week, and who hadn’t smoked in two days, were 36% less responsive to blood flow changes than non-smokers. The study notes that reduced responsiveness to blood flow “is an early sign of arterial damage that often foreshadows cardiovascular disease.”

Combine this knowledge with the fact that nicotine addiction becomes stronger after each use, that you can become addicted after smoking just a few cigarettes, and that tobacco is the number one cause of preventable death in the U.S. – is it really worth it?

-posted by Chris Miller

Even if you quit, smoking during younger years negatively affects health later in life

A study conducted by Dr. Arto Y. Strandberg at the University of Helsinki followed 1,658 men born between 1919 and 1934. They were considered healthy in 1974 and a follow-up in 2000 showed that those who never smoked lived about ten years longer than those who had smoked more than 20 cigarettes a day. Even those that had quit smoking between 1974 and 2000 lived shorter lives. Although nearly 70% of 1974 smokers had quit by 2000, about 44% had already died; and those who had survived had considerably worse health than never-smokers.

Campuses can use the results of the study to help encourage cessation and tobacco-free policies. Students can be informed that even if they eventually quit smoking, their current use of tobacco is negatively affecting their future health. The study showed that health problems increase as the number of cigarettes smoked increases, so it’s best to quit as soon as possible.

Source: Medical News Today

-posted by Chris Miller

New Tobacco Products

In their unending attempts to circumvent smoke-free laws, the RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company has unveiled several new "smokeless" products to be test marketed in early 2009. These three new products are dissolvable in the mouth, and they come in sticks, strips and "orbs." Each carries the signature Camel brand.

RJR says they will test market these products starting in January in Columbus, Ohio, Indianapolis, and Portland, Oregon.

BACCHUS encourages campuses to work toward tobacco-free campus policies, rather than just smoke-free. Exchanging one addictive product for another is not a consistent health message. These new products clearly indicate the dedication that tobacco companies have for perpetuating tobacco addiction.

-posted by Tad Spencer

Study shows casual young-adult smokers more likely to dangerously drink

A new study conducted by the Yale University School of Medicine surveyed nearly 6,000 young-adults aged 18-25 and found that casual smokers are 16 times more likely to be hazardous drinkers and five times more likely to have alcohol-use disorders than their nonsmoking peers. This strong link between social smoking and dangerous drinking should help guide health educators on campus. When your campus health center refers a smoker to cessation services, perhaps they should also ask questions to see if providing information about the dangers of binge drinking would be appropriate.

Click here for the full article.

-posted by: Chris Miller

Smoke-Free Pennsylvania

Congratulations to Pennsylvania’s 14 state-owned universities. In addition to the state going smoke-free, the campuses have made all their grounds completely smoke-free, as well.

Though there has been some backlash over the new policy, we encourage campuses to stay on-message about the health benefits of smoke-free/tobacco-free environments, and emphasizing that healthy behaviors are the norm.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08257/911949-85.stm

-posted by: Tad Spencer