Nebraskans interested in reducing tobacco use in Nebraska gained a deeper understanding of the toll of tobacco in Nebraska from a state and national expert on a webinar earlier this month.

Presenters on this webinar shared the toll that tobacco takes on Nebraska both in human and financial terms. 

Presenters Brenda Richards, Program Consultant, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Office on Smoking and Health and Jeff Soukup, Program Manager, Tobacco Free Nebraska, Nebraska DHHS, shared the tremendous toll that tobacco takes on Nebraska. They shared that each year:

• 2,200 Nebraska smokers die each year as a result of smoking
  
• 36,000 youth aged zero to 17 alive today will die from smoking in the future, and that
  
• 220 Nebraska non-smokers die each year from secondhand smoke.

The webinar is available by replay. To view the webinar, please register for the Tobacco's Toll on Nebraska webinar at the "Reducing Tobacco Use in Nebraska 101 Webinar Series" homepage.

Three other webinars are planned in the series, and registration is open for each of these webinars.

"A Program to Prevent Tobacco Use in Nebraska," with presenters Monica Eischen, CDC OSH Program Services Branch, Team Lead Program Consultant, and Judy Martin, Program Manager, Tobacco Free Nebraska, Nebraska DHHS, will take place at 10 a.m. CT/9 a.m. MT Tuesday, December 20, 2011. Presenters on this webinar will explore what programs to reduce tobacco use do, what the evidence is for their ability to reduce tobacco use and what's being done in Nebraska to reduce smoking and other tobacco use.

The "History of the Master Tobacco Settlement and Tobacco Prevention Spending in Nebraska," with presenters Madeleine Solomon, Tobacco Technical Assistance Consortium, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, and Rich Lombardi, American Communications Group, Lincoln, Nebraska, will take place 10 a.m. CT/9 a.m. MT Tuesday, January 31, 2012. Presenters on this webinar will explore the history of the national Master Tobacco Settlement, as well as the history of how the money Nebraska receives as part of that settlement has been spent, especially regarding reducing tobacco use.

"The Price of Tobacco Products and Consumption," with presenter Dr. Frank Chaloupka, Distinguished Professor of Economics & Public Health, and Director, Health Policy Center of the University of Illinois at Chicago will take place 10 a.m. CT/ 9 a.m. MT Tuesday, February 28, 2012. Dr. Chaloupka will explore the relationship between the price of tobacco products and smoking and tobacco use rates, sharing national research and Nebraska statistics.To register for each of the webinars, visit the "Reducing Tobacco Use in Nebraska 101 Webinar Series," homepage.

The cut of Nebraska's tobacco control program from $3 million in spending in fiscal year 2007 to $2.4 million for fiscal year 2012 puts the state in the company of states cutting tobacco prevention programs, but may set the state up for future spending, based on two reports released this week.

A report released today by a national coalition of public health organizations shows that states have slashed funding for programs to reduce tobacco use by 12 percent in the past year and by 36 percent over the past four years, threatening the nation’s progress against tobacco.

And research released earlier this week said funding such tobacco control programs at recommended levels could save 14 to 20 times more than the cost of implementing the programs.

“It is truly penny-wise and pound-foolish for the states to cut funding for tobacco prevention and cessation programs,” said Nancy Brown, CEO of the American Heart Association. “These programs not only reduce smoking, but also lower tobacco-related health care costs that total nearly $100 billion annually. Tobacco prevention programs are smart investments that save lives and money.”

The states in fiscal year 2012 will collect a near-record $25.6 billion in revenue from the 1998 state tobacco settlement and tobacco taxes, but will spend only 1.8 percent of it – $456.7 million – on programs to prevent kids from smoking and help smokers quit. This means the states are spending less than two cents of every dollar in tobacco revenue to fight tobacco use.

In Nebraska, total funding of $2.4 million is a mere 11 percent of the $21.5 million that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend be spent here to reduce tobacco use. Nebraska ranks 25th nationally for funding of state tobacco prevention programs, based on percent spent of the CDC's recommended levels.

Nebraska's $2.4 million planned for 2012 to reduce tobacco use compares to $66.5 million that was spent in tobacco company marketing in the state in 2008, meaning that tobacco companies outspend Nebraska by 28.1 to 1, and that to reduce tobacco use, Nebraska spends just 3.6 percent of the amount tobacco companies spend to spur it.

Both the total amounts states are spending nationally on tobacco prevention programs and the percentage of tobacco revenue spent on these programs are the lowest since 1999, when the states first received significant tobacco settlement funds.

A study published in the journal Contemporary Economic Policy said that smoking costs affect the states through medical costs, Medicaid payments and lost productivity by workers. The researchers used data from 1991 to 2007, when states paid for the tobacco control programs with the help of the tobacco taxes, public and private initiatives and funds from the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement between the nation’s four largest tobacco companies and 46 states. If states funded anti-smoking efforts at levels recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to the study, they could save 14 to 20 times their investment.

The coalition report, titled “A Broken Promise to Our Children: The 1998 State Tobacco Settlement 13 Years Later,” warns that continued progress against tobacco use – the nation’s number one cause of preventable death – is at risk unless states increase funding for tobacco prevention and cessation programs. In Nebraska, more than 18 percent of adults smoked in 2008.

The report also calls on states to increase tobacco taxes.

The report was released by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, American Lung Association, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights. Issued annually, the report assesses whether states have kept their promise to use tobacco settlement funds – expected to total $246 billion over the first 25 years – to fight tobacco use.

View the full coalition report and state-specific information.

Because the Nebraska Legislature has scheduled a hearing dealing with tobacco Master Settlement Agreement funds on the morning originally scheduled for the Tobacco's Toll on Nebraska webinar, the first webinar is being rescheduled for December 6. See the new information below.

Anyone who has registered already for the webinars may keep the log-in information for all webinars. The information will "work" on December 6 for the first webinar rather than as originally scheduled.

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Each year, 2,200 Nebraska kids become daily smokers. Coincidentally, 2,200 is also the number of lives claimed by smoking-related diseases in Nebraska each year.

What’s the true toll of tobacco on Nebraska? What’s being done, and what can be done to reduce that toll?

That's the topic of a webinar series that will explore the answers to these questions, and to join the effort for a healthier Nebraska.  

Who should attend?
Nebraskans elected and appointed to serve as decision makers; professionals seeking to reduce tobacco use in our state; other interested public health professionals; advocates and volunteers seeking to promote healthier lives in our state; and members of the news media will find the presentations by our expert panel to provide insight into the problem of the state’s number one preventable cause of death for Nebraska’s adults.  Reducing Tobacco Use in Nebraska 101 registrations are being taken online.

The Webinars

Tobacco’s Toll on Nebraska
Presenters
Brenda Richards, Program Consultant, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 
Jeff Soukup, Program Manager, Tobacco Free Nebraska, Nebraska DHHS
10 a.m. CT/9 a.m. MT Tuesday, November 29, 2011

A Program to Prevent Tobacco Use in Nebraska
Presenters
Monica Eischen, Program Consultant, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Judy Martin, Program Manager, Tobacco Free Nebraska, Nebraska DHHS
10 a.m. CT/9 a.m. MT Tuesday, December 20, 2011

History of the Master Tobacco Settlement
and Tobacco Prevention Spending in Nebraska
Presenters
Madeleine Solomon, TTAC, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University
Rich Lombardi, American Communications Group, Lincoln, Nebraska
10 a.m. CT/9 a.m. MT Tuesday, January 31, 2012

The Price of Tobacco Products and Consumption
Presenters
Dr. Frank Chaloupka
Distinguished Professor of Economics & Public Health
Director, Health Policy Center
University of Illinois at Chicago
10 a.m. CT/ 9 a.m. MT Tuesday, February 28, 2012

"Here could be a product that, if handled correctly, could well offer an opportunity for a special female-targeted product that could be as significant as Virginia Slims was for Philip Morris."

That's what Stephen Pope, a tobacco industry analyst and managing partner of Spotlight Ideas in England said about R.J. Reynolds' dissolvable line of tobacco products. Convenience Store News reported:

"The product line -- Camel Sticks, Camel Strips and Camel Orbs --do not require spitting, which could be a deciding factor among female tobacco users. According to a report in the Winston-Salem Journal, females represented 45 percent of all adult smokers who bought Camel Sticks, Camel Strips and Camel Orbs during September and October. Of all adult tobacco users, 31 percent were women.

"By comparison, adult males make up 85 percent of moist snuff and Camel Snus users. 
The dissolvable products 'could prove to be the first viable smokeless tobacco products for females,' stated Bonnie Herzog, an analyst with Wells Fargo Securities LLC."

The tobacco industry has long targeted different demographic groups, successfully creating brand identity for various products. Smokeless tobacco products have traditionally had greater use among boys and men than girls and women. It's troubling to consider that more women might begin to take up tobacco products with the dissemination of these dissolvable products.

"Dissolvable tobacco products have caught the eye of the Food and Drug Administration. The agency gained the authority to regulate the manufacturing, marketing and distribution of tobacco products under the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. The FDA's Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee (TPSAC) took up the issue at its July meeting, the first step toward issuing regulations."

Reynolds has not said when a national rollout of the products will occur.


CSNews Online

 Each year, 2,200 Nebraska kids become daily smokers. Coincidentally, 2,200 is also the number of lives claimed by smoking-related diseases in Nebraska each year.

What’s the true toll of tobacco on Nebraska? What’s being done, and what can be done to reduce that toll?

That's the topic of a webinar series that will explore the answers to these questions, and to join the effort for a healthier Nebraska.  

Who should attend?
Nebraskans elected and appointed to serve as decision makers; professionals seeking to reduce tobacco use in our state; other interested public health professionals; advocates and volunteers seeking to promote healthier lives in our state; and members of the news media will find the presentations by our expert panel to provide insight into the problem of the state’s number one preventable cause of death for Nebraska’s adults.  

On Wednesday, September 28, 2011, 55 Lincoln area businesses and organizations were recognized for their commitment to enhance the health of their employees and those they serve by implementing tobacco- and smoke-free campus policies.

Tobacco Free Lancaster County (TFLC), a local group working to reduce the number of area residents suffering from tobacco-related illness, is sponsoring this recognition and is pleased to honor businesses that have taken the lead in establishing these policies.

Scientific studies confirm that worksite-based policies prohibiting the use of tobacco throughout the employer grounds effectively reduces tobacco use.

The recognition event featured testimonies from a local employer who enacted such a policy and an employee of that business who was influenced to quit smoking after 30 years because of the implementation of the policy.

Congratulations to the following businesses in Lancaster County for their commitment to smoke-free air and the health of their employees and customers by implementing a smoke-free or tobacco-free campus. 

• American Heart Association
  
• B & R Stores
  
• Back to the Bible
  
• Bailey Lauerman 
  
• Beynon Farm Products Corporation 
  
• Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska 
  
• BryanLGH Health System
  
• CEDARS Youth Services
  
• Community Health Endowment
• Continuum EAP 
  
• Cornhusker Bank
  
• Crete Carrier Corporation
  
• Crossroads Physical Therapy
  
• Duncan Aviation
  
• First State Bank
  
• Foundation for Educational Services
• Gastroenterology Specialties
  
• Great Western Bank
  
• Hampton Enterprises, Inc.
  
• Lincoln Christian School
  
• Lincoln Council on Alcoholism and Drugs
• Lincoln Industries
  
• Lincoln Medical Education Partnership
• Lincoln Public Schools
  
• Lincoln Regional Center
  
• Lincoln Surgical Hospital
  
• Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital
• Malcolm Public Schools
• National Arbor Day Foundation 
• NEBCO Inc.
• Nebraska Bankers Association
• Nebraska Community Blood Bank
• Nebraska Heart Hospital
• Nebraska Heart Institute
• Nebraska Occupational Health Center/Lincoln 
• Nebraska Risk Management Association, Inc.
• Nebraska Safety Council
• Nebraska Sports Council
• NMPP Energy
• Norris Public Schools
• NRD – Nebraska Association of Resources Districts
• NRD-Lower Platte South
• Pathology Medical Services, P.C.
• Pfizer, Inc.
• Physical Therapy Associates
• Schneider Electric
• Speedway Motors, Inc.
• St. Elizabeth’s Regional Medical Center
• State Farm
• Tabitha Health Care Services
• Talent Plus
• The Salvation Army
• Union Bank and Trust
• Union College
• University of Nebraska Foundation
• YMCA of Lincoln 

 A new report published today by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides powerful and concrete evidence that the nation’s battle against tobacco use has not only driven down smoking rates, but is also saving lives by reducing lung cancer, the number one cancer killer in the United States, according to a national organization committed to reducing tobacco use.

But that's not all it does, according to the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. It also tells elected officials that if they care about protecting constituents from lung cancer, they must take action to reduce smoking.

Research shows that there are strategies demonstrated to reduce tobacco use and the health harms that result.

"The most successful states have implemented a comprehensive, scientifically proven strategy that includes higher tobacco taxes, smoke-free workplace laws and well-funded programs to prevent kids from smoking and help smokers quit," according to a statement by Matthew Myers, President of the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. 

California, the first state to implement such a strategy, reduced lung and bronchus cancer rates nearly four times faster than the rest of the U.S. between 1988 and 2004. California's adult smoking rate in 2010 was 11.9 percent, compared to 19.3 percent for the nation as a whole. 

"It is telling that the ten states with the lowest smoking rates all have strong smoke-free laws that cover restaurants and bars and have an average tobacco tax that is almost three times as high as the ten states with the highest smoking rates."

"Every state can do as well as California — and even better — in reducing smoking and lung cancer. The states must step up their efforts to increase tobacco taxes, enact smoke-free laws and fund tobacco prevention and cessation programs. It is especially critical that states reverse budget cuts that have decimated tobacco prevention and cessation programs in recent years, cutting total funding by more than a third."

Tobacco companies researched the relationship of smoking and drinking in smokers and then identified and put in place marketing to specifically capitalize on that relationship, according to a new University of California study published online in the American Journal of Public Health.

The study, published online prior to October print publication, finds that tobacco companies performed extensive research on smokers' alcohol-related behaviors, and pursued a wide variety of marketing strategies to capitalize on those behaviors.

The study's authors investigated tobacco companies' knowledge about smokers' simultaneous smoking and drinking. The study also looked at marketing strategies linking cigarettes with alcohol and the benefits tobacco companies sought from these marketing strategies 

Tobacco company investigation indeed confirmed the association between alcohol use and tobacco use, according to what the researchers found in tobacco company documents. Researchers identified three main types of marketing strategies that tobacco companies used to link cigarettes with alcohol. That marketing included joint sponsorship, joint promotion and cigarette promotions featuring alcohol or alcohol paraphernalia.

Tobacco companies' numerous marketing strategies linking cigarettes with alcohol may have reinforced the use of both substances, according to the study's authors.

This week "60 Minutes" posted a story about what it describes as the "most famous and controversial whistleblower piece in the annals of '60 Minutes.'"

According to "60 Minutes," whenever it broadcasts a whistleblower story, conversation there always turns to this particular piece: An interview with former big tobacco research scientist Jeffrey Wigand.

Mr. Wigand, who since has made appearances in Nebraska telling his story, was, according to "60 Minutes," "the first major tobacco insider to reveal that cigarette companies were consciously trying to get us hooked on nicotine, despite tobacco executives' public statements to the contrary."

The historic importance of this story has prompted "60 Minutes" to post the full interview of the tobacco industry whisteblower, which was aired in two parts, so that it will be available for all interested in viewing it.

Mr. Wigand's choice to act as a whistleblower came at great personal cost. He suffered job loss, loss of health insurance, marriage problems and threats on the lives of his children.

The story inspired the Hollywood movie, "The Insider."

Whether you have never seen this interview or have seen it time and time again, it's worth another look.