New Education Opportunity


50 Years After the First Report on Smoking by a Surgeon General

If you have been able to see through all the smoke of the current and ongoing marijuana discussion, perhaps you've noted that 2014 Surgeon General's Report: The Health Consequences of Smoking—50 Years of Progress has been issued.
Picture courtesy of iStockPhoto.com
There is good news:

  • In 50 years, smoking has been decreased by more than half
  • Twenty-five states and DC have comprehensive laws that prohibit smoking in indoor areas of work-sites, restaurants, and bars.
  • The military has heeded the warnings of the Surgeon General 
  • Nicotine's addictive effects have been known since 1988
There is still plenty of work to be done. Of the 10 major findings of the report: 
  1. Research continues to identify new diseases caused by smoking
  2. We know more about the harms of secondhand smoke and the adverse health effects on children and infants
  3. Disease risks for women now equal those of men
  4. Though smoking has declined, large disparities in tobacco use remain across race, ethnicity, educational levels, socioeconomic status and regions of the country

A Word Picture of the Headlines We Tracked in 2013


Next Coalition Meeting - Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS)

This seven minute video has a lot of information about the babies who are born addicted to drugs. We will be discussing this topic at our next Coalition meeting. Anyone interested in learning more is welcome to join us at the Sullivan County Regional Health Department (154 Blountville Bypass, Blountville, TN) from 10 AM - Noon.


Connie Gardner (Hospital Liaison for DCS) and Teri Evans (RN for the Sullivan County Regional Health Department) will present more information and take your questions. This is part of our ongoing effort to understand the effects of prescription drug abuse in our community as we prepare to create our next prevention strategy.

Fifteen Minutes of Practice - A Must Try for Parents of Teens

From SAMHSA's Talk They Hear You Campaign - http://www.kognito.com/startthetalk/ 
For parents who would like to practice their skills before engaging their teens in the underage drinking conversation, this is the best site I've seen. It is an interactive coaching, practice and feedback experience where you help another parent talk to her son. It is set up so you can return multiple times to address different approaches to the conversation (in preparation for each your your conversations).
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