Tobacco Prevention: A Top Priority

• Preventing youth from beginning tobacco use

• Helping people quit

• Reducing exposure to secondhand smoke

• Reducing tobacco use in high-risk groups

• Contact us

• Links to outside sites

• Map of this site

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www.doh.wa.gov a healthy dose of information

NoStankYou.com

Preventing Youth from Beginning Tobacco Use

Tobacco use, the nation’s number one cause of preventable death, is a childhood-onset disease.  Magazine advertisements, movies, and retail marketing have shaped a youth culture that views tobacco use as glamorous, social, grown-up, and rebellious. 

Forty-five children in Washington start using tobacco every day and one-third of them will eventually die from it.  To address this public health scourge, the Washington Tobacco Prevention and Control Program conducts a comprehensive, innovative, and diverse campaign to prevent youth from beginning tobacco use.  As a result of these efforts, there are about 65,000 fewer Washington kids smoking than before the program began in 1999. 

The campaign includes three major elements:

• Educating kids about the dangers of tobacco use
  School-based programs
  NoStankYou.com, Washington's Web site for youth

• Making it difficult to get tobacco
  Reducing youth access to tobacco
   

• Changing society’s acceptance of youth tobacco use
  Empowering youth to fight against tobacco
  Public awareness and education

How youth can get involved

• Teens Against Tobacco Use Program
  Teens Against Tobacco Use (T.A.T.U.) is a peer education program sponsored by the American Lung Association in which high school students are trained to teach about the hazards of tobacco use to middle and elementary school students.  Find a T.A.T.U. group in your community.

• Youth coalitions
  Young community leaders help plan youth-related tobacco prevention activities in counties across the state.   Youth action teams are specially trained representatives of eight county coalitions who receive advanced technical assistance and training from media relations professionals.  Counties with youth action teams include Skagit, Spokane, Pierce, Grant, Clark, Skamania, Pacific, and Benton/Franklin.
   

• SpeakOut!
  The American Cancer Society helps youth leaders and their adult partners build strong youth coalitions for tobacco prevention and advocacy through the SpeakOut! Youth Initiative Program.  Workshops are held throughout the state and participants receive a toolkit as well as the ability to apply for mini-grants. Find a SpeakOut! group in your community.
   

Youth events happening now

Find out how to get involved in your community

Healthy Youth Survey: Training Materials for Survey Coordinators

Where to find anti-tobacco information in your:

• Cross-cultural community

• County

• Tribe

• Educational Service District

Links to external sites of interest*

• American Legacy Foundation, youth tobacco prevention program

• Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, a comprehensive site describing tobacco industry targeting of youth.

• Tips for Kids, the Centers for Disease Control's youth Web site

• Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program, U.S. Department of Education.  The Federal government's primary program for reducing tobacco use and other forms of abuse through education and prevention activities in schools.

• Start Talking Now, Washington State Coalition to Reduce Underage Drinking
   

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 * Links to external resources are provided as a public service for educational purposes only. External links do not imply endorsement by the Washington State Department of Health of any political, commercial, promotional or other proprietary content that may be included in linked Web sites.

Linked external Web pages are routinely monitored by the Department for materials that advocate for political outcomes. If you find any materials on a directly linked Web page that advocates for, or against, any political candidates, ballot measures, or referendums, please contact us immediately so that the link may be promptly removed.

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Last Update : 05/21/2009 07:35 PM
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