The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are encouraging smokers to talk with their doctors about quitting smoking. The "Talk With Your Doctor" initiative is underway this week and part of CDC's national tobacco education campaign, Tips From Former Smokers, which not only tells the story of how real people's lives were changed forever due to their smoking or exposure to secondhand smoke, but also motivates people to quit.
The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals Tobacco Control Program and its partner, the Southwest Louisiana Area Health Education Center (Southwest Louisiana AHEC), of Lafayette, have announced the four recipients of the 2012 Tobacco-Free Health Care Project grant, which provides funds to health care facilities committed to using research-based strategies for tobacco prevention, control and awareness, empowering citizens to make healthy lifestyle choices and reduce tobacco use.
The annual Synar Report describes the progress Louisiana and other states have made in enforcing youth tobacco access laws and future plans to reduce youth tobacco access rates as required by the federal Public Health Service Act [42 U.S.C. 300x–26]. The law requires all states to have in effect a law making it unlawful for any manufacturer, retailer, or distributor of tobacco products to sell or distribute any such product to any individual under the age of 18, and to conduct random, unannounced inspections to ensure compliance with the law. States are required to report this information annually to the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP).
