LOS ANGELES – No more butts about it.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius joined Los Angeles County Supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky and Mark Ridley-Thomas and county Health Officer Dr. Jonathan E. Fielding to announce the start of the most aggressive, comprehensive anti-smoking campaign in LA County history to reach communities with high smoking rates across the county.
"Tobacco use is the single most preventable cause of disease, disability, and death in the United States," said Secretary Sebelius. "The Department of Health and Human Services is committed to helping communities reduce smoking prevalence and decrease exposure to secondhand smoke. We are proud to be working with Los Angeles County, one of the leaders in tobacco prevention and control."
Launched in August 25 in Santa Monica, this anti-tobacco effort will include several policy-based initiatives, social services and support for quit smoking efforts, as well as a high-profile and highly targeted media campaign to support a broad range of tobacco control efforts and raise awareness of free and low-cost resources to help smokers quit.
These tactics will aim to ultimately reduce secondhand smoke exposure, discourage tobacco use, reduce consumption of tobacco products, strengthen youth smoking prevention efforts, and increase access to and utilization of effective tobacco cessation services.
"The stakes are too great for us to not step up our efforts," said Dr. Fielding.
According to a fact sheet released by the In LA County Public Health Department, nearly 9,000 lives and $4.3 billion are lost to smoking and smoking-related diseases each year.
"These efforts are ultimately focused on preventing the next generation of teenagers and young adults from using tobacco products. It is essential that we create more environments where tobacco use is not acceptable, where all county residents are protected from exposure to secondhand smoke, and where those who want help quitting know how and where to go get it," said Dr. Fielding.
The campaign will be funded by a federal stimulus grant from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Communities Putting Prevention to Work initiative. LA County is one of 44 communities across the nation to receive funding from the highly competitive initiative and is the largest grant recipient, receiving $16.2 million for tobacco prevention and $15.9 million for obesity prevention, for a total of $32.1 million.
Dr. Fielding added that the additional funds would help in redoubling their efforts in the communities with the greatest need.
While the overall smoking rate for LA County, 14.3%, is substantially lower than the national average, there are still more than one million adults and adolescents in the county who continue to smoke.
Smoking rates among certain populations continue to be much higher than the general population, including African Americans, Asian males, LGBT, those living in poverty, and those suffering from mental health and substance abuse problems.
Among those racial and ethnic groups with smoking rates higher than the general population are: African American males 32.1% and females 19.6%, Latino males 17.7%, Korean males 44.8%, Chinese males 16.4%, Filipino males 17.1%, and Vietnamese males 24.8%.
To help residents who are currently addicted to tobacco, have already quit or want to help a friend or relative kick this deadly addiction, LA County residents can visit www.LAQuits.com for information and resources about quitting smoking, or call 1-800-NO-BUTTS, the free and confidential telephone counseling service that has proven to double a smoker’s chances of successfully quitting than if the smoker tried to do it alone. The service also assists those trying to quit chewing tobacco and has experts to help teens quit.
( Published August 28, 2010 in Asian Journal Los Angeles p. A8 )
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