The Health Promotion Council's Tobacco Control and Prevention
Program works in all areas of comprehensive tobacco control including
education and prevention, youth smoking cessation, easy availability
of cigarettes to youth, tobacco smoke pollution and community empowerment.
Historically, funding for our programs has come from a mix of local
and state grants, as well as public and private foundations. HPC is
currently the recipient of Pennsylvania Tobacco Settlement funding for
projects serving the five county region of Southeastern Pennsylvania
(Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery Counties).
Many of our tobacco control advocacy projects fall under
the auspices of the Tobacco-free Education & Action Coalition
for Health (TEACH). Founded in 1993, TEACH is a five county
tobacco control coalition that strives to encourage our community to
make intelligent and healthy choices about tobacco. The coalition includes
over 100 member organizations including health professionals, hospitals,
community groups, local health departments, individuals, schools, townships,
recreation centers, and policy makers. TEACH is staffed by the HPC tobacco
control team. TEACH activities include networking opportunities and
a resource center for the 5 county tobacco control community through
TEACH coalition and task force meetings, distribution of materials,
and participation in county tobacco control coalitions, and statewide
organizations. TEACH is funded by and serves Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester,
Delaware, and Montgomery Counties. For more information, contact us
at teach@phmc.org.
HPC's Youth Tobacco Cessation Program
has provided a unique opportunity to quit or reduce smoking to hundreds
of middle and high school youth in Philadelphia and Delaware counties.
Our tobacco cessation specialists have provided youth smoking cessation
professional training for adult facilitators, conducted a research study
on the recruitment and maintenance strategies for youth cessation groups
and founded the five county TEACH Youth Smoking Cessation Task Force
in 1997. Specific projects to address smoking cessation in minority
communities have included a Latino campaign in Bucks County, an African
American campaign in Delaware County, and a study of the cultural barriers
to smoking cessation in the Philadelphia Asian Community. In 2002-03,
HPC is providing youth smoking cessation/reduction groups to youth in
South Philadelphia, with funding from the Methodist Hospital Foundation
and youth cessation technical assistance to service providers in Montgomery
and Philadelphia Counties.
The No ID, No Tobacco, No Kidding campaign
reduces youth access to tobacco in Philadelphia through enforcement
of a law passed in 1995. Through this initiative merchants are held
accountable for illegally selling tobacco to youth and youth, merchants
and community members are educated about youth access issues. Hundreds
of "compliance checks" have been conducted yearly and citations
for violations are issued in a unique collaboration with Philadelphia
city government of Public Health. Philadelphia's sales rate to youth,
as measured by the federally required Synar survey, dropped to an all
time low of 9% in 2002, down from 86% in 1996. With support from the
tobacco settlement, this year youth surveyors will check 6,000 stores.
Stores who sell tobacco products to youth should be
reported to HPC's toll-free community hotline, 1-888-99SMOKE/1-888-997-6653.
This program is a joint project of the Health Promotion Council, the
Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections, the Philadelphia
Coordinating Office for Drug and Alcohol Abuse Programs, the Philadelphia
Department of Public Health and the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
The Delaware County Tobacco Program
provides educational materials on a variety of issues including youth
access to tobacco, tobacco smoke pollution, advertising and promotion
by the tobacco industry and Africans American and tobacco use. All licensed
tobacco merchants will be visited three times each year. Surveys measuring
the extent to which they sell tobacco to youth will be conducted during
FY02. Restaurants will also be surveyed to see if they are in compliance
to the 1989 Pennsylvania Clean Indoor Air Law. This program is funded
by the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the Delaware County Office
of Behavioral Health.
The Bucks County Latino Tobacco Program
conducts the Tobacco Awareness and Cessation Program called Digamosele
No al Tobacco. The program educates, encourages and guides the Bucks
County Latino community to make intelligent and healthy choices about
tobacco use and the value of quitting. The Pennsylvania Department of
Health and the Bucks County Tobacco Control Program fund this program.
For programs and materials, please contact Latino
Health Projects at 215-731-6192; email latino@phmc.org
For further information contact Rachel Milenbach,
Director of Tobacco Control and Prevention at 215-731-6186 or rachelm@phmc.org.
[ Chronic Disease Management
| Health Literacy Projects | Nutrition
Education | Staying Healthy: Disease Prevention
]
