Tobacco Prevention Video Contest

Click below for details about a video contest for youth groups announced by the Surgeon General.

Young people are encouraged to create a Public Service Announcement of sorts - the contest theme is “Tobacco, I’m not buying it.”

Deadline for entries is April 20. Finalists get $1,000; top video gets
$5,000.

www.facebook.com/cdctobaccofree?sk=app_347644345262215

New Report of the Surgeon General

U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Regina Benjamin, issued a new report today entitled Preventing Tobacco Use Among Youth and Young Adults.

During her press conference this morning, she even gave a shout out to Virginia Youth Advocates who have worked on tobacco use prevention initiatives - way to go Y Street!

Smoking continues to be the single most preventable cause of death in the U.S. and the report outlines the toll that tobacco is still taking every day. There is new information on young adult smokers who unfortunately smoke at rates higher than any other age group (33%) and it discusses the scientifically proven dose-response relationship between tobacco marketing/ promotions and youth tobacco use.

Visit www.surgeongeneral.gov to view the report and additional resources can be found at the Office of Smoking or Health www.cdc.gov/tobacco.

Now is the time to issue those press releases and shout it from the mountaintops - tobacco use prevention is CRITICAL to our public's health!

Happy Great American Spit Out!

Did you know this week included a holiday other than President's Day? It's National Through With Chew Week and the Great American Spit Out!

If you need spit tobacco resources or want to promote an end to smokeless tobacco use take a look at this site developed in Wyoming. http://www.throughwithchew.com/twcweek.aspx
If you are a current tobacco grantee, I will also forward you an email from the Tobacco Education Clearinghouse of California (TECC), a project funded by the California Tobacco Control Program who has compiled a wonderful “Top 10” list of resources on smokeless tobacco products.

It has great fact sheets and research articles, including information on new, dissolvable tobacco products. This email will include links to other helpful sites, slide presentations and video content that's available on YouTube.

Alliance for a Healthier Generation

Do you know a school health champion in your community who has interest in improving school nutrition or integrating fun, new ways of keeping kids physically active?

Would you like to help your local pediatricians, primary care docs or registered dietitians learn about the Healthier Generation Benefit - which can provide eligible children with four follow up visits with his or her primary care provider and four visits with a registered dietitian per year for the prevention and treatment of childhood obesity?

Do you work with after-school programs or parenting groups?

If you answered YES to any of these questions, check out the Alliance for a Healthier Generation's website: http://www.healthiergeneration.org/ They have great resources for schools, community groups, clinicians and families who want to improve the health of THIS generation of kids so that America will be healthier tomorrow.

Visit from Delegate Morefield

Julia Wood with Mount Rogers Community Services was a terrific hostess this week to Delegate Will Morefield at Bland High School. Julia and I discussed with the Delegate the Life Skills Training program that she implements in grades 3-8 in Bland and Rocky Gap thanks to her VFHY tobacco use prevention grant. GO BEARS!

VFHY Programs SHINE!

Hats off to Bethany Webb of New River Valley Community Services and JD Carlin of Blue Ridge Behavioral Healthcare for their recent feature on NEWS 7!

Here are some photos of them hard at work (while cameras were rolling!) with kids in Roanoke City and Montgomery County. Both of these folks made all of us look great as the local television station highlighted what Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) funds are doing in our portion of the state.

If you didn't see last night's story, click here for the segment:
http://www.wdbj7.com/health/wdbj7-tobacco-money-to-keep-kids-healthy-has-it-gone-up-in-smoke-20111027,0,3538248.story

CVS Sells Poison Project

Drug stores are supposed to help us feel better when we are sick, right?

So have you ever thought about why cigarettes are available at the check out of these retailers? The very same lethal product that ends the life of over 400,000 Americans each year. The same product that causes cancer, heart disease, and emphysema that result in $75 billion in health care costs to treat. The same product that hooks hundreds of thousands of new, young smokers year in and year out.

One project is aimed at changing this contradiction in terms for CVS.

Check out the CVS sells poison project here: ww.ToxicTobaccoLaw.org/13news.shtml#CVS

Their objective is to get CVS pharmacy (over 7,000 stores, 500 medical clinics) to stop advertising, promoting, distributing and selling lethal, addictive cigarettes. CVS pharmacy claims to be the world's largest pharmacy health care provider, licensed by the states to promote health and provide care.

Check out their music video CVS sells poison The song at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjpqXQc4tKg or search for "CVS sells poison on YouTube. Over 6,000 views so far.

Last week, CVS Pharmacy was called upon "...to stop advertising, promoting, distributing and selling lethal, addictive cigarettes at its over 7,000 stores."

Earlier this year CVS's public relations department stated, "As a healthcare provider, we acknowledge that the sale of tobacco products in our stores is a challenging issue."

According to this Project's Director, Terence A. Gerace, PhD, "CVS should announce plans to stop selling cigarettes before Christmas 2011. Walgreens and Rite Aid will have to follow suit."