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Newsletters

GRASSROOTS NEWSLETTER

July-Aug 2008     Volume 7 number 1

 

Dear members and friends of TFMC,

 July 1 was the beginning of a new year of activities for tobacco prevention in Marion County.  Thank you all for your help and support the last 6 years.  If you would like to become more active, we’d love to have you!  We have activities planned to educate and motivate youth, parents, merchants, healthcare providers, seniors, pregnant women, and more to avoid tobacco use and exposure.  Sincere thanks to those of you who participated in our survey.  Your guidance in identifying issues that are relevant to our community is what makes our work successful.

 Congratulations and thanks are due to the Yellville Parks Board who earlier this year voted unanimously to adopt a tobacco free parks policy.   Our coalition is proud of the leadership this group has shown, being the first in Marion County to voluntarily protect the health of all the users of the parks by eliminating exposure to tobacco byproducts, increasing public safety, and decreasing the litter on the grounds.  Our coalition bought signs for the Yellville park and also “no smoking” signs for the Bull Shoals skate park.

 We have also provided signs for the fairgrounds buildings which we hope to see displayed during the Marion County Fair in Summit.  The signs explain Marion County ordinance 2006-29 in the following way:  “No smoking or tobacco use inside or within 50 feet of entrances.”  This law pertains to all county-owned buildings.  TFMC will have an information table set up at the fair again this year, too, thanks to Renee Myers with the UA Extension Agency and the MC Fair Board and many volunteers. Our table will be up from September 17-20^th.

 Most recently, Dr. Leatherman, Yellville-Summit Superintendent, asked us for signs to post at building entrances.  Those we provided say, ”This is a Tobacco Free Campus.  Smoking or use of tobacco in any form in or on any property owned or leased by a public school district, including buses, is prohibited.  Arkansas code 6-21-609, 1999.”   Thanks in advance to  6^th grader Ida Meyer and her friends who will help get the signs posted.

 Rick Bender, cancer survivor and former minor league baseball player, will be making motivational presentations at all 3 public schools in Marion County on September 30.  In his surgical treatment for oral cancer he not only lost 1/3 of his tongue and 1/2 of his jaw, but also neck and shoulder musculature, thus ending his big league dreams.  He has dedicated himself to spreading the message, especially to youth, that spit tobacco is not a safe alternative to smoking and no level of tobacco use is safe.  This is an important message for Marion County youth to hear, because 2007 data shows that more students in grade 10 were chewing tobacco regularly than were smoking.  If you’d like to attend, contact your school to ask for information.

 We are very excited about becoming sponsors for the Flippin Elementary Bobcat Morning Show, a morning news show produced by Ms. Gregory’s Gifted and Talented students that is telecast into all the elementary classrooms every morning.  This is a wonderful opportunity to cultivate youth leadership in tobacco prevention.

 We plan to share a booth at the Hillbilly Chili Cook-Off September 7^th at the state park in Lakeview with the Baxter County Tobacco Control Committee.   We will also have a booth at Turkey Trot October 10^th and 11th.  If you want to spend time working at either event, distributing information about tobacco prevention, please call the office and we’ll put you on the schedule.  At least stop by the booth and see what’s new!

 The tobacco industry, which was caught on record referring to youth as “replacement smokers” (to replace the 1,400 smokers that quit or die every day), spends an estimated $160.5 million marketing in Arkansas annually.  If you figure Marion County’s share proportional to population, that’s $963,000 spent per year on things like tobacco advertising and discount promotions just in our county.  That’s a big budget to challenge.   Because of responsible retailing practices, the educational outreach of our local healthcare providers and teachers and community partners, and the actions of so many people in Marion County to live healthier lives by quitting tobacco use, we have some wonderful statistics to celebrate!  Thanks to all members and friends who contributed to these changes.

 ·  The rate of pregnancy smoking has gone down significantly among Marion County mothers, though we are still above the state’s average. 

            Pregnancy smoking

                        Marion County 2006= 38.5% all live births (AR 16.0%)

                        Marion County 2007 = 23.8% all live births (AR 15.7%)

·  When TFMC was started, about 1 in 3 adults smoked in Marion County.  The latest available data is from 2006 and it shows we’re down to 1 in 7, the lowest adult smoking rate in the state!      

Adult use (smoking)

                        TFMC’s start in 2002 about 32% or 1 in 3 people

                        2001-2003 composite = 26.84%

                        2002-2004 composite = 26.75%

                        2003-2005 composite = 24.28%

                        2006  single year data = 14%  or 1 in 7 people  (AR 22.9%)

·  Youth use of cigarettes and chewing tobacco went down among 6-12 graders              

Youth use (cigarette and spit tobacco averaging grades 6, 8, 10, and 12)

2006 smoking rate = 16.16%     2006 spitting rate = 12.24%

2007 smoking rate = 12.3%       2007 spitting rate = 9.45%

·  Between 1 July 2007 and 27 August 2008 Marion County retailers have made  ABSOLUTELY ZERO tobacco sales to minors during Arkansas Tobacco Control Board compliance checks!