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April, 2008
QUICK LINKS
Visit www.stampoutsmoking.com
TPCP Department Employee
Spotlight: Barbara Pauly
Barbara Pauly is the new Associate Branch Chief for the Arkansas Department of Health Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Program. Pauly began as Associate Branch Chief in January, and is responsible for the administrative oversight of TPCP. Her duties include setting goals and objectives for TPCP programs, monitoring program progress, establishing budget priorities, and a number of other management-oriented tasks.
Pauly has more than 20 years of experience as a non-profit administrator and has designed and implemented hundreds of education programs. She pioneered the first Men’s Health Fair and Prostate Cancer Summit in Arkansas, transforming and directing a statewide mobile screening and education program, which benefited more than 1,600 men and their families. Pauly earned her degree in biology and women’s studies from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota in 1988.
Advisory Board Member
Spotlight: Claudia P. Barone
Appointed by Governor Mike Beebe in 2008, Claudia P. Barone, Ph.D., is a member of the Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Advisory Board. Her interest in tobacco prevention and cessation is in educating health care providers, counseling patients in her nursing practice, and conducting research on how best to assist patients with quitting tobacco use.
She has been involved in two Summer Institutes for Tobacco Control Practices sponsored by Georgetown University School of Nursing and Health Sciences, and teaches a graduate level course in tobacco cessation for students during each summer.
Barone is the Dean of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences College of Nursing and a practicing registered nurse at University Hospital. Before being appointed Dean in October 2006, she served as Associate Dean at the College and has been on faculty a total of 17 years.
ASPIRE
The Arkansas Department of Health is hosting a workshop on April 10 to introduce the ASPIRE program to Arkansas. ASPIRE, which stands for A Smoking Prevention Interactive Experience, is a free multimedia Web-based tobacco prevention and cessation program for middle and high school students. The workshop will be led by Alexander V. Prokhorov, M.D., Ph.D., of M.D. Anderson Tobacco Outreach Program at the University of Texas.
ASPIRE has been shown to decrease smoking initiation among youth. It is a valuable resource to educators, health care professionals and others who work with youth and serves as a useful tool for students as they learn to make smart choices about tobacco use. ASPIRE was funded by the National Cancer Institute and was designed in collaboration with the University of Texas School of Public Health.
Featured Coalition
- Elroy Brown, Chairman and Coordinator of the Mississippi County Coalition for a Tobacco-Free Arkansas, speaks to Marti Young's kindergarten class about the dangers of tobacco use at Blytheville Primary School
Spotlight: Mississippi County Coalition for a Tobacco-Free Arkansas
The Mississippi County Coalition for a Tobacco-Free Arkansas (MCCTFA) will host its fifth annual Saving the Lives of Arkansas’s Children Banquet on April 18. This year, the keynote speaker will be Dr. Cheryl Healton, president and CEO of the American Legacy Foundation. The American Legacy Foundation is best known for its widely successful national truth® campaign, and has recently launched an online cessation tool, becomeanex.org, to help smokers re-learn their lives without cigarettes.
In addition to providing its president as a keynote speaker, American Legacy Foundation is a sponsor of the banquet. The Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Program is a major sponsor as well as local sponsors including Nucor Steel Hickman, Farmer’s Bank and Trust and Dawson Employment Service.
The MCCTFA is a tobacco intervention program based in Blytheville, Arkansas. The coalition began in 2002, and creates health promotion campaigns to build awareness of disparities, treatment options and strategies to reduce tobacco use among youth and adults.
MCCTFA’s Saving the Lives of Arkansas’s Children Banquet will take place at 7 p.m. on April 18, in the fellowship hall of First Missionary Baptist Church in Blytheville. Tickets can be purchased for $25 each at Mississippi County Judge Steve McGuire’s office, or by calling Elroy Brown at 870-763-7167.
Smoke-Free Movies Recap
The Youth Extinguishing Smoking Team did its part in February to participate in a national movement called Smoke-Free Movies. The Smoke-Free Movies movement hopes to remove smoking scenes from movies due to the negative message directed to young viewers. Research shows adolescents are strongly influenced to smoke when they see actors smoking in movies.
The Y.E.S. Team conducted presentations across the state to raise awareness about the prevalence of tobacco in movies and to motivate Arkansans to take action. With a new theme, “Rated Y.E.S.: Protect Our Youth From Smoking,” the Y.E.S. Team has taken ownership of the local Smoke-Free Movies initiative and is working to make movie viewing safer for Arkansas youth.
From the Desk of Thaer Baroud
Current Smokeless Tobacco Use Among Arkansas High School Students
- In 2007, approximately 1 out of 10 high school students was a smokeless tobacco user.
- Between 2000 and 2005, the rate of smokeless tobacco use has not significantly changed among high school students.
- Comparing 2000 to 2007, the rate of smokeless tobacco use in high schools dropped by approximately 17%.
- This decline, however, is not statistically significant.
Conference on Smokeless Tobacco
ADH employees Sara Daniel, Glenda Parker, Glenn Sergeant staff the SOS booth at the 4th Annual National Summit on Smokeless and Spit Tobacco in Oklahoma City.