This month we launched two new tobacco prevention public service awareness campaigns that show the final consequences of long term tobacco use, and the effect of secondhand smoke on children. The public service announcements for the Arizona Smokers' Helpline (ASHLine) focus on smokers and encourages people to call the ASHLine for help quitting. Since the [...]
The Top 5 things that kill people in Arizona: heart disease, cancer, lung diseases like emphysema and chronic bronchitis, stroke, and injuries. In fact - these 5 conditions cause 63% of all deaths - which is nearly 18,000 people each year in Arizona (about 50 people/day). Tobacco use is a major factor in 4 out [...]
Smokeless tobacco has made recent headlines with former MLB players citing their habitual use for their cancer diagnosis, including Tony Gwynn, who recently died after battling salivary gland cancer, and this week, Curt Schilling, who publicly announced his diagnosis of squamous cell carcinoma (cancer of the mouth). Both attributed their cancer to their 30+ years of chewing. The percentage of adults [...]
The Top 5 things that kill people in the US are: heart disease, cancer, lung disease such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis, stroke and injuries. In fact- these 5 conditions cause 63% of all deaths in the US — which is nearly 18,000 people each year in AZ (about 50 people/day in AZ). This week [...]
We continue to make strides to get Arizonans to Kick the Habit. We got the good news this week that Arizona’s adult smoking rate dropped 2 more percentage points in the last year… going from 19% 2011 to 17% today. The data come from this year’s CDC Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System… and it translates [...]
The CDC just released a report for their national smoking cessation campaign launched in March 2012 called “Tips from former smokers.” Nationally, the ‘Tips’ campaign led to an estimated 1.6 million smokers attempting to quit with 100,000 likely quitting for good. The campaign directed callers to 1-800-QUIT-NOW. If you call from an Arizona zip code you [...]
Our Smoke Free Arizona program turned 6 last month. Voters approved the Act back in November of ’06 by a few percentage points. The Initiative language gave us a super-short turn-around time and we turned the key on the program by May of ’07. Implementation of the Initiative was smooth from the get-go and compliance with the [...]
Today is the 37th Annual Great American Smokeout®. Sponsored by the American Cancer Society, the annual event challenges smokers to start the quit process by joining thousands of other Americans in quitting for the day. The thought being - if you can quit for a day, you can quit for life. Across the state the Arizona [...]
The CDC is kicking off a new national smoking cessation campaign today called “Tips from Former Smokers”. The new tobacco education campaign will begin airing today and will run nationally for 12 weeks. Ads include television, radio, billboard, magazine, newspaper, theater, and online placements. In addition, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other channels will help spread [...]
Life is a precious gift. None of us knows long our gift will last, so it’s important to make the most of every day. That means doing everything you can to stay healthy by eating well and exercising regularly. A lot of folks will say – I’m stuck with my health because of my genes, [...]
