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Recent Announcements

Be sure to check out our Tobacco News Feed -- scroll down to lower right of homepage for current tobacco-related news from various news sources on the World Wide Web!

 

  • On April 18, 2013 MDQuit and the Institute for a Healthiest Maryland hosted guest speaker, Dr. Lorien Abroms, as a part of the Community Transformation Grant (CTG).  Dr. Abroms’ presentation provided an overview of the evidence base for using mobile phones as an aid in quitting smoking and an in-depth look at Text2Quit, a text messaging program for smoking cessation that has been integrated into quitline services in selected states. For more information about Dr. Abroms’ research and to view her presentation titled, “Smoking Cessation: Do we have an app for that?” please visit our CTG page. 

  • The CDC began its 2013 "Tips from Former Smokers" campaign on April 1st.  This year's campaign includes additional smoking-related health conditions, and will build upon those presented in the highly successful 2012 campaign.  This new campaign will also feature the effects of smoking on specific population groups.  As with last year's campaign, the CDC's website provides a host of resources in addition to the stories of former smokers and others who suffer the health consequences of smoking.  

  • The Smoking Cessation Leadership Center (SCLC) has made the webinar, “Social Marketing and Tobacco Campaigns” (with Les Pappas, MPA, President & Creative Director, Better World Advertising, and Kristin Harms, Communications Manager, California Smokers’ Helpline) available as an online CME/CEU course.  (Other online CME/CEU webinars can be accessed from the SCLC's website: http://smokingcessationleadership.ucsf.edu/Webinarscme.htm)    Accreditation:  The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians and allied health professionals.  UCSF designates each online webinar activity for a maximum of 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM for a fee of $25 per CME/CEU certificate.   Don’t need to claim CME/CEUs?  SCLC issues free certificates of attendance for those who want contact hours only.   Feel free to view the recording direct from this webpage: http://smokingcessationleadership.ucsf.edu/Webinars.htm         For more information, contact Reason Reyes, SCLC Director of Technical Assistance, at reason.reyes@ucsf.edu or call toll-free (877) 509-3786.

  • MDQuit's 7th Annual Best Practices Conference
    Thursday, January 24, 2013 - Turf Valley, Ellicott City, MD
    Thank you to all presenters and attendees who made MDQuit's 7th Annual Best Practices Conference a success! Please click here to view and download presentations and materials from the day.

  • Just Released: CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report for February 5th, 2013 "Vital Signs: Current Cigarette Smoking Among Adults Aged ≥ 18 Years with Mental Illness -- United States, 2009-2011" 

  • Just Released: CDC Press Release for February 5, 2013 "Smoking among U.S. adults with mental illness 70 percent higher than for adults with no mental illness"

  • The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has launched BeTobaccoFree.gov, a comprehensive website providing one-stop access to the best and most up-to-date tobacco-related information from across its agencies (CDC/OSH, FDA, NIH/NCI, the Office of the Assistant Secretary, and the Office of the Surgeon General).  This resource provides information on tobacco, federal and state laws and policies, health statistics, and evidence-based methods on how to quit.  Visit BeTobaccoFree.gov for information on helping tobacco users quit and helping young people to avoid or end tobacco use.DHMH was awarded a Community Transformation Grant (CTG) from CDC to expand Maryland’s efforts in tobacco-free living, healthy eating, and clinical and other preventive services (i.e., control of hypertension and high cholesterol) in 17 smaller counties.   Also visit our new CTG Regional Tobacco Meetings page.

  • A recently released Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report contains an article on Consumption of Cigarettes and Combustible Tobacco -- United States, 2000-2011.  Read the full article on the CDC's website.

  • The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (Tobacco Control Act - TCA) became law on June 22, 2009.  The TCA authorizes the FDA to regulate the manufacture, distribution, and marketing of tobacco products in order to protect the health of the American public.  The FDA has simplified the TCA to make it easier to understand -- visit the Searchable Tobacco Control Act at the FDA’s website, www.fda.gov/TobaccoControlAct.

  • Wicomico County's Health Department is sharing success stories from its Smoking Cessation Program, and we have posted the video.

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Maryland Tobacco News

Overview of U.S. Smoke-free Foster Care Regulations

According to the Public Health Law Center, an increasing number of states throughout the country implemented smoke free regulations within foster homes as of December 2012.  The Center reports that these protocols will minimize the harmful health effects of secondhand smoking for children in foster care.  The state of Maryland adopted a policy prohibiting smoking inside the home, outside within the range of the home, and within the vehicle.  More specifically, the Maryland foster care smoke free policy states that foster parents are required to “provide an environment for foster children free from exposure to secondhand smoke.”  To learn more about the smoke-free foster care policy options, visit the Public Health Law Center’s 2013 policy brief, Smoke-free Foster Care: Policy Options and the Duty to Protect (2d ed., 2013), available at http://www.publichealthlawcenter.org/sites/default/files/resources/phlc-policybrief-smokefreefostercare-2013_0.pdf
New services in Md.’s tobacco counseling

In December 2012, The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene announced the addition of new tobacco counseling services to the Maryland Tobacco Quitline, 1-800-QUIT-NOW.  The Quitline has provided free tobacco cessation counseling and nicotine replacement therapy to over 100,000 residents in Maryland with a 97% satisfaction rate since its establishment in 2006.  The new services now offered by the Maryland Tobacco Quitline include counselors available live 24 hours/day, 7 days/week, counseling services for teens, more support from Web Coach online at https://www.quitnow.net/Maryland, and a new text support system called Text2Quit.  The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene timed the release of these new tobacco counseling services to coincide with the New Year holiday to help spark smokers’ motivation to quit as part of their New Year’s resolutions.  To learn more about these new services offered by the Maryland Tobacco Quitline, click on the link below.
Maryland Tobacco Industry and Its Distribution of Revenue Towards Tobacco Programming

In 2000, the Maryland State Assembly created the Cigarette Restitution Fund in which significant funds are intended to go towards programs for cancer treatment and research, smoking cessation, and Medicaid expenses. These funds primarily come from annual payments made by tobacco companies as a part of the 1998 Master Tobacco Settlement Agreement with the tobacco industry. For the fiscal year 2013, Maryland acquired a total of $149.1 million for the fund of which approximately $85.7 million went to Medicaid and $17.6 million went to cancer prevention, screening, and treatment. Unfortunately, in that same time period, Maryland generated a total tobacco revenue of $555 million. Only $4.2 million or 0.8 % of that total revenue went to tobacco prevention and cessation.  Additionally, the $4.2 million falls short of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention budget recommendation of $63 million on tobacco programming. Hopefully in the future Maryland will come closer to meeting its goal of $63 million and ultimately increase in prevention and intervention efforts towards tobacco use.

National Tobacco News

Smoking, Once used to Reward, Faces a Ban in Mental Hospitals

Cigarette smoking has often been used as a form of incentive/reward for mentally ill patients; in particular, it is used to get patients to adhere to medications and/or hospital rules and regulations. However, reports from the CDC show that smoking rates are higher in mentally ill populations (70%) compared to those individuals without any mental illness. Furthermore, chemicals found in smoking may alter the metabolism of medications and some chemicals can even make the treatment medications less effective. Although more and more treatment facilities are trying to implement a smoking ban, some still allow smoking outside their grounds.  Further barriers that impede implementation of smoking bans in hospitals and treatment facilities are the fear that clients may dropout and/or the smoking ban may impose too great an interference with treatment.  However, results from a survey conducted by SAMHSA showed that smokers with mental illness were willing to quit given the necessary support and resources.
Cigars and Other Non-Cigarettes Rise in Popularity

Based on the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly report released by the CDC on Aug. 3, it has been noted that the consumption of cigars, pipe tobacco and roll-your-owns has increased drastically from 2000 to 2011. The use of non-cigarette tobacco consumption also serves to explain why tobacco consumption has dropped by less than 1% between 2010-2011. The increase in the tobacco excise tax setup by the federal government since 2009 was effective in decreasing the consumption of cigarettes; however, consumers are increasingly switching to more and more non-cigarette forms of tobacco products, such as pipe tobacco. Furthermore, even tobacco companies are relabeling some of their products to “pipe tobacco” and are adding more weight to their “small” cigars so that they can avoid paying the excise tax -- or so they can at least pay a lesser amount.
More People are Smoking E-cigarettes, But as a Quitting Tool

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported an increase in electronic cigarette awareness among adults, with 60% of people surveyed reporting awareness in 2011 as compared to 40% in 2010.  Recent research has also demonstrated that current smokers are more likely to use electronic cigarettes along with their regular cigarette usage compared to former or non-smokers.  Statistics show approximately 21% of adult smokers used e-cigarettes in 2011, which was an 11% increase from the previous year.  This combination could possibly increase the total amount of nicotine consumed per day.  According to researchers, electronic cigarettes are a convenient way for current smokers to continue to sustain nicotine addictions when unable to smoke cigarettes.  The Food and Drug Administration has not officially recommended electronic cigarettes as a smoking cessation tool. More research is still needed to fully evaluate the health effects of the electronic cigarettes.  For more on this report of e-cigarette use as a tool for quitting smoking, visit the link below.