RWJF

Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Take Center Stage
Using their advocacy and communications expertise, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids^® and the SmokeLess States^® program found an opportunity amidst the tough economic climate and burgeoning state deficits to advance public understanding of the effectiveness of tobacco tax increases, which can raise revenue for state tobacco prevention and cessation programs and save lives by driving down smoking rates. In 2002, 21 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico increased cigarette taxes, a move that collectively should prevent more than 700,000 young people from becoming regular smokers and create more than $12.7 billion in long-term health care savings. The SmokeLess States program, in the second year of a three-year, $52-million authorization, continued its efforts in tobacco prevention and cessation by providing nearly $9 million in grants to 13 state tobacco control coalitions. The program currently supports a total of 42 coalitions.

Smoke-free or “clean indoor air” public education initiatives also gained momentum in 2002. Growing awareness of the health benefits of clean indoor air became evident last November when Florida voters passed a smoke-free air law that prohibits smoking in restaurants and most indoor workplaces. In the same month, all restaurants, bars and most other public indoor workplaces in Delaware became smoke-free under the most comprehensive indoor smoking ban in the nation. In December, New York City, Chicago and Boston passed clean indoor air legislation that prohibits smoking in most restaurants, bars and other workplaces.

Preventing Secondhand Smoke During Pregnancy
The Foundation made strides this year in its efforts to help pregnant smokers quit and stay smoke-free. Some 20 percent of pregnant women smoke, contributing to premature births, low-birthweight babies and infant breathing problems. The Foundation awarded a total of $5.8 million in 2002 for Smoke-Free Families: Innovations to Stop Smoking During and Beyond Pregnancy. The program supports a new National Partnership to Help Pregnant Smokers Quit, a coalition of more than 40 organizations joining forces in an education and communications initiative targeted at pregnant women and the health professionals who serve them. The initiative illustrates ways in which family members and friends can support and encourage pregnant smokers during their attempts to quit. It also promotes a new tool that health care providers now have at their disposal: a brief, easy-to-implement approach to counseling during prenatal care called the Five A’s Approach (ask, advise, assess, assist, arrange follow-up). Studies find it doubles and in some cases triples quit rates among pregnant smokers, even among low-income women who are most likely to smoke during pregnancy.

Research and experience show that pregnancy is an ideal time to target women for smoking cessation. Women are more open to quitting than at any other time in their lives because they are worried about their baby's health, and they tend, during and immediately after pregnancy, to have regular contact with the health care system.

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