Tobacco Awareness

Our Mission:

To increase awareness of the dangers of tobacco use.

Our Goals:

Prevention - reduce the number of youth who begin using tobacco by empowering youth and adults in anti-tobacco advocacy and policy making through education and training
Environment - eliminate second hand smoke exposure in the community
Cessation - decrease the number of youth and adults who are using tobacco

Program Actions:

Increase awareness of key tobacco issues
Engagement in the Policy Process regarding tobacco issues
Promote tobacco cessation
Create, maintain and improve effective tobacco control organizations

Fresh Air for All

Tobacco-free Florida's "Free Air for All" logo March 26-April 1 is Tobacco Free Florida Week and their emphasis this year is on second-hand smoke (SHS). Here are some facts concerning SHS and multi-unit housing:

More than 82 percent of Florida adults are non-smokers.
A resident who smokes in a single unit within a multi-unit residential building puts the other residents of the building at risk. Tobacco smoke can move along air ducts, through cracks in the walls and floors, through elevator shafts, and along plumbing and electrical lines to affect units on other floors.
If a resident has a medical condition made worse by secondhand smoke drifting into his or her apartment, he or she may be protected under federal and state disability laws. Depending on the nature of your disability, your landlord may be required to take action to eliminate your exposure to SHS.
Implementing a smoke-free policy in multi-unit dwellings has numerous benefits. Smoking significantly increases fire hazard and boosts cleaning and maintenance costs. Other benefits are the insurance discounts that many property insurance companies offer to buildings with no-smoking policies.
Survey findings indicate that tenants are often bothered by tobacco smoke and that four out of five non-smokers would prefer a smoke-free building policy.

For more information about this event and other areas of interest, please visit http://tobaccofreeflorida.com.

Tobacco Facts:

Cigarette smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States.
An estimated 28,700 Floridians die each year from smoking related causes.
More than 2.5 million Floridians, 17.5% of the adult population, are current cigarette smokers.
Each day more than 3,450 young people between 12 and 17 years of age smoke their first cigarette and 850 become daily smokers.
More deaths are caused each year by tobacco use than by all deaths from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, suicides, and murders combined.
A smoker inhales only 15% of the smoke from a cigarette; the other 85% becomes second-hand smoke.
Children exposed to second hand smoke have more asthma attacks, sinus & ear infections, allergies, bronchitis, pneumonia and croup.
Smoking decreases a person's life expectancy anywhere from 7 to 20 years.
Cigarette smoking during pregnancy can result in low birth weight babies.
Smoking has been associated with infertility, miscarriages, tubal pregnancies, infant mortality and childhood morbidity.
Additionally, cigarette smoking may cause long-term learning disabilities.
Each day 88 Floridians die as a result of tobacco use.

Tobacco Usage Among Middle and High School Youth
	Middle School		High School
Year	Santa Rosa	Florida	Santa Rosa	Florida
2000	16.7 %	11.1 %	33.4 %	22.6 %
2006	12.7 %	11.3 %	36.2 %	23.9 %
2008	10.3 %	9.0 %	31 %	22.4 %
2010	10.5 %	8.7 %	24.3 %	22.2 %

Sources: Florida Youth Tobacco Survey, Tobacco Free Florida, Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System

Santa Rosa County (SRC) Tobacco-Free Coalition:

The mission of the SRC Tobacco-Free Coalition is to reduce the prevalence of tobacco use and educate on the dangers of tobacco abuse in Santa Rosa County, Florida.

Coalition members include local physicians, hospitals, medical clinics, educational institutions, the Santa Rosa County School District, the Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Office, other area non-profit organizations and community leadership groups.

The next scheduled meeting of the Santa Rosa County Tobacco-Free Coalition will be on Thursday, April 5, 2012 at 4:00 pm at the Santa Rosa County Health Department. If you would like information on joining the Coalition, please call (850) 983-5200.

Tobacco-Free Coalition Newsletters

Would you like to quit smoking?

The Santa Rosa County health Department offers smoking cessation classes at no charge. Visit our Smoking Cessation webpage for more information or call 850-983-5200.

The QuitLine is a toll-free telephone-based tobacco use cessation service. Any person living in Florida who wants to try to quit smoking can use the QuitLine.

The QuitLine offers:

counseling sessions
self help materials
materials in English and Spanish (translation services available for other languages)
free nicotine replacement therapy (such as nicotine patches, gum and lozenges) while supplies last
TDD service for the hearing impaired

Phone: 1-877-U-CAN-NOW (1-877-822-6669)

Visit Quitline on the web.

Helpful Resources:

Tobacco Free Florida

Quitline

Florida Department of Health Division of Health Access and Tobacco

Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids

The following report is in Portable Document Format (.pdf) and requires Adobe Reader to view. If you don't have the Reader, please click on the logo to install it.

Surgeon General's Report on Secondhand Smoke

Florida Youth Tobacco Survey Reports Page