State-By-State Interactive Map on Smoking Cessation: Economic Benefit

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New Study Finds Positive Return on Investment for States that Invest in Quit Smoking Treatments

By the AMERICAN LUNG ASSOCIATION

September 14, 2010        more>>

National Network Technical Assistance Call

Conducting the Community Scan: Strengthening the FDA’s Tobacco Control Act to Protect Our Youth

The National Network will conduct a technical assistance call for its membership to discuss relevant issues related to the FDA tobacco legislation. The call will be held 3:00 – 4:00 pm EST on September 8, 2010. The learning objectives for the call are as follows:

• Increase understanding of what provisions of the FDA Tobacco Control Act (TCA) are in effect, how they are being enforced.
• Showcase the MI Dept. of Community Health’s local community scan tool and what is important to share with the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products.
• Increase knowledge of what information to share with your community and elected officials, including describing gaps in the FDA Tobacco Control Act that could be addressed at the local level.

Tribal College Initiative

The Tribal College Initiative is a project funded by the American Legacy Foundation designed to develop capacity of tribal colleges to engage in health surveillance and monitoring. Because of their intimate connections with the communities in which they reside Tribal Colleges are in an excellent position to provide health surveillance and monitoring support to Tribes and Tribal Health Departments. The initiative will provide training and technical assistance to Stone Child College located in Box Elder, Montana, and Dine’ College, located in Tsaile, Arizona, to plan and implement the American Indian Adult Tobacco Survey (AI ATS).

The AI ATS was developed through a collaboration of the CDC Office on Smoking and Health and CDC funded Tribal Support Centers. The goal was to develop culturally appropriate surveillance tools through which Tribes could collect Tribal Specific data that could be used to inform and improve their own tobacco programs. The methodology  used in this surveillance system were uniquely designed by tribal members in order to respect tribal sovereignty, respect traditional tobacco use, and culturally appropriate methods of data collection.

The implementation of the AI ATS by the Stone Child College and Dine’ College will generate data that can inform and improve the development of tribal policies aimed at reducing the consumption of tobacco products and exposure to secondhand smoke.  In addition, the project will impact Tribes by guiding the development of tribal specific interventions by providing representative, tribal specific data that can be used to set health priorities, direct program planning, establish well defined benchmarks and assess progress over time.

For more information on the Tribal College Initiative, or the Adult Tobacco Survey, please contact Lisa Abramson at labramson@itcmi.org.

Sault Tribe Smoke-Free Housing

Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians Passes Smoke-free Housing Policy

With a great deal of pride, the Sault Tribe Housing Authority announces that a smoke free housing policy has been adopted. This is a milestone as it is the first Michigan Tribal Housing Authority to do so, and the fifth in the Nation.

On May  17^th. 2010, the Housing Authority Board of Commission designated 4 duplexes located in Kincheloe, to be Smoke Free homes.

With providing a healthy living environment being our main goal, the Housing Authority wanted to take this opportunity to give our Tribal people the chance to join the nationwide movement towards becoming smoke free.

Many Tribal and non-Tribal entities worked hard on obtaining this status. The coalition of the Sault Tribe Tobacco Task Force, Sault Tribe Housing Authority, and the Michigan Department of Community Health providing technical assistance, worked for several months to achieve this goal. This could not have been done with out the partnership of MDCH Tobacco Section, Tribal Youth Council and Smoke-free Environments.

News from the Program Manager

Boozhoo! (Hello!)

I’ve hit the ground running in my short duration as Program Manager for our National Native Commercial Tobacco Abuse Prevention Network (NNCTAPN)!  I would very much like to thank the NNCTAPN Partners – Favian Kennedy of the Health Education and Promotion Council; Cynthia Tainpeah and Ursula Hill of the Musckogee Creek Nation; Janis Weber of JCW Research and Evaluation Group, Inc., as well as our previous Program Manager, Lisa Abramson – for making my transition into the Network as smooth as possible .   It isn’t easy to change leadership midstream for anyone, and I feel a very warm welcome and great support from each and every one of them.

AN/AI Adult Tobacco Survey Training

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The Health Education and Promotion Council in conjunction with the National Native Commercial Tobacco Abuse Prevention Network and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention facilitated an Alaska Native & American Indian Adult Tobacco Survey Training in Anchorage, Alaska on July 12th -14th, 2010.

The theme of the Alaska Native & American Indian Adult Tobacco Survey Training was Linking Research with Public Health Policy and Practice, and offered detailed information about health surveillance and monitoring planning, as well as innovative solutions for putting data to action. Resources for AI-ATS and AN-ATS planning and implementation can be found on the CDC and National Network websites.

The National Network is encouraging tribes and tribal programs to consider the implementation of the AI-ATS or AN-ATS as a way of improving American Indian and Alaska Native data related to commercial tobacco abuse. The National Network provides free technical assistance for tribes and tribal programs. Inquiries should be addressed to Kim.