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Project Ideas

Tobacco is such a large issue that there are endless ideas for projects that you can organize at your chapters. Many organizations, like the American Heart Association and American Lung Association, organize outreach projects on a regular basis and they would be a good resource to tap. You can find contact information for your local chapter of these organizations on their Web sites. Here are just a few examples of the types of projects you can do in your communities.

Stand Tall Against Tobacco (STAT)
Texas Medical Association-Medical Student Section
The STAT program was initiated in the Fall of 2000 by the Texas Medical Association-Medical Student Section (TMA-MSS) chapter at the Texas A&M University System Health Science Center College of Medicine (COM) in College Station, Texas. Initial funding was provided by the Texas Medical Association Foundation and the Texas A&M University System Health Science Center. The TMA-MSS 2000-2001 officers wanted to develop a tobacco prevention and cessation program in the local community. Local seventh grade students were selected as the target audience since research demonstrated that tobacco use begins early and substantially increases during the middle school years. The TMA-MSS officers worked diligently through the Fall of 2000 to create the program curriculum, and STAT was officially kicked off in conjunction with the Great American Smoke-out in November, 2000. The initial year included four student assemblies, 60 classroom visits, and a citywide Public Service Announcement contest. The program reached approximately 1400 seventh grade students in Bryan and College Station, Texas.

The STAT program comprises three components, which include:

School Assemblies—Early in the school year, the STAT program is introduced to the students in an assembly. The agenda includes an explanation of the STAT program’s three phases, a guest speaker to share his/her life story as a result of tobacco use, and a discussion of the health risks of smokeless tobacco with the presentation of an oral cancer slide show.
Classroom Visits—A pair of volunteers presents the STAT curriculum to a classroom of seventh graders. In this interactive session, the students are exposed to issues such as the health risks of tobacco use, peer pressure, tobacco advertising, and quitting tobacco.
Annual Student Contest—STAT gets the students involved in a community wide contest. The students have a chance to be creative and illustrate what they have learned about tobacco use. In 2000-01, the two winners created Public Service Announcements for the radio. In the 2001-02 school year, the students have been asked to create tobacco prevention/cessation posters.

The STAT program served as the model for the AMA-MSS National Service Project. The MSS project utilized the structure of the STAT program and expanded it to include medical students nationwide. For more information about the STAT curriculum or to start a STAT program in your community, contact tobaccostat@medicine.tamu.edu or visit their website at www.tobaccostat.org

GirlForce
Vanderbilt University
Students at Vanderbilt University created an entire workshop for girls on tobacco and its effects. They held these workshops at a number of community schools and after school programs. They held focus groups and did a lot of research on the topic of how to reach adolescent girls. They decided that the smoking mirror, which is a program that morphs the girls pictures to show the effects of aging with and without smoking (i.e., wrinkles/yellow teeth) would be especially effective for this target group. A couple of girls volunteered pictures before hand, which was a good way to start the discussion. From that point, they included things like organ sessions with lungs, heart, etc.

The smoking mirror was only one part of the day. Other sessions included a fitness class taught by a Vanderbilt aerobics instructor, and discussions about body image and eating habits. Together the entire project was called "GirlForce." It was a great success in a lot of schools and the students are still gathering feedback to determine if the program is effective in preventing smoking among the target audience.

GirlForce took a few years to evolve. It was sponsored by the medical center and run by medical students. A few students spent a summer doing research for the program two years ago. While they were doing research, they did a number of focus groups with smaller one-hour activities that could be easily recreated for chapters to try.

Tobacco…Tobacco…Tobacco
University of Florida College of Medicine
Students from the University of Florida COM held the following tobacco-related projects:

The medical students arranged for the AMA Alliance’s anti-smoking superhero, The Extinguisher, to come speak to their local elementary schools.
An attending at the University scheduled all second-year students to visit a local high school and speak about tobacco to each of the classrooms.
University of Florida students, as part of the Partners in Prevention of Substance Abuse (PIPSA) Project (see project description below), attended high school Life Management Skills classes to discuss tobacco. They showed a video consisting of 6 "trigger" segments that were each1-2 minutes long. The topics varied from emphysema to chewing tobacco to Christy Turlington talking about her dad dying of lung cancer. After each segment, the medical students would discuss that particular issue with the kids. The video really made an impact on the high schoolers.

For more information on this project, please contact Kelsey Hamilton, University of Florida College of Medicine, kelsey76@ufl.edu

Partners in Prevention of Substance Abuse (PIPSA) Project
University of Florida Health Science Center
PIPSA is a project of the University of Florida Interdisciplinary Health Science Center (HSC). PIPSA’s goal is to diminish the severe negative effects of ATOD (Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs) abuse on many levels of our society by targeting both health care professional students and middle school students. Health profession students are included in the target group because most health care providers traditionally receive insufficient formal instruction in this area. Middle school students are the other target group because their risk to begin ATOD abuse is high due to vulnerability to the charms of substance abuse, coupled with suspicion of adults. The appeal of a health-professions student as a role model for the middle school student is apparent. Conversely, professional students, faced with the opportunity to instruct middle school students in their classrooms, will be motivated to learn the material more thoroughly and in ways that may also affect their personal and professional behavior. This double-pronged approach focuses on provision of accurate didactic information to interdisciplinary groups of health care professional students from Health Science Center (HSC) colleges and to middle school students.

The PIPSA program consists of two components: Afternoons of Learning and Applied Learning Day. The Afternoons of Learning utilizes interdisciplinary small-group cooperative learning activities called Patient-Oriented Problem-Solving (POPS) and two lectures. The POPS activity focuses on tobacco, other inhaled drugs, and general principles of substance abuse. The opening lecture discusses the importance of this material to future health care professionals, adolescent development, and middle school classroom management strategies. The goal of the closing lecture is to motivate the professional students to help fight the tobacco industry. The Applied Learning Day reinforces the substance abuse Afternoons of Learning by sending students into the community to provide middle school students with ATOD abuse education. Groups of 2-3 students take a trigger videotape consisting of 6 vignettes and classroom teaching aids to area middle schools.

During the 2000-2001 academic year, this program was disseminated to and implemented in all five of Florida’s medical schools associated health science centers. Due to monetary and staff resources, it would be necessary for your school to adopt PIPSA in order to participate in this program. The PIPSA staff can provide free masters of the content materials electronically, and can inexpensively provide the technical assistance necessary to run the program. If your school is interested in this program, you can find more information on the PIPSA website at http://ccl.ichp.edu/pipsaweb2.htm

For more information on this project, please contact Anita Smart, Assistant Director, Center for Cooperative Learning, Institute for Child Health Policy at UF, acs@ichp.edu

Beating the Tar Out of Tobacco
University of Nebraska Medical Center
Medical students at UNMC organized a comprehensive tobacco project with the goals being to inform UNMC medical students about the severity of teen tobacco problems in Nebraska; inform UNMC medical students about resources and options available in the fight against tobacco; and motivate UNMC medical students to be actively involved in the anti-tobacco campaign in Nebraska.

During the first phase of their project, the UNMC students invited the director of the Metro Omaha Tobacco Action Coalition (M.O.T.A.C.) to speak at their AMA-MSS lunch meeting. M.O.T.A.C. is committed to addressing tobacco related health issues in Nebraska through public policy, legislation, education, prevention, and advocacy, and the presentation educated students about ways to get involved in these areas.

During the second phase of their project, the UNMC students coordinated a grassroots effort to raise the excise taxes in Nebraska. In February 2002, the students held a breakfast letter-writing campaign for a bill that would raise the cigarette tax in Nebraska by $.50. Students wrote letters to the senators on the revenue committee in the Nebraska legislature. Last year, this bill failed to make it out of the revenue committee and on the floor for a vote. In April 2002, the Nebraska legislature voted to increase the cigarette tax by 30 cents.

For more information on this project, please contact Clark Diffendaffer, University of Nebraska Medical Center, cdiffend@unmc.edu

Students of Tobacco Free Michigan Active Doctors
Michigan State University College of Human Medicine
Members from the Michigan State University AMA chapter were actively involved in the Students of Tobacco Free Michigan Active Doctors (STFMAD), a group comprised of first and second year medical students who promote tobacco prevention on a grassroots level by teaching 4th, 5^th, and 6th grade students about the harmful effects of smoking. The STFMAD also promoted anti-tobacco legislation. The medical students went to over 20 classrooms in the Greater Lansing area to teach the grade school students the perils of smoking.

Using PowerPoint presentations and interactive games, the medical students taught kids about the negative effects of smoking. They gave the children different props, such as a battery, toy car, toy rocket, etc., and asked the children to stand up and describe what they have. The medical students would then tell the children how these things are related to the components of a cigarette. The medical students also brought real plastinated samples of normal lung tissue, emphysema lung tissue, and cancerous lung tissue to show kids the difference. The children really responded to these "real" samples.

The student members also gathered signatures for a petition to put a bill on November's ballot that would allow Michigan residents to have a say in the manner in which tobacco settlement money is being used in this state. They also petitioned during a health care rally that was held on the steps of the Lansing capital. They had about five students circulating with petitions that Michigan residents could sign, and they gathered approximately 100 signatures.

For more information on this project, contact Payel Gupta, Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, payelg@hotmail.com

Tobacco Program Control Resolution
University of South Carolina School of Medicine
The Medical Student Section of South Carolina authored and presented a resolution on tobacco control programs at the annual South Carolina Medical Association (SCMA) meeting. The resolution asked that the SCMA aggressively work with other national and state tobacco-control advocacy groups and the South Carolina Legislature to encourage them to utilize the income from the Health Care Trust Fund to fund a comprehensive tobacco control program in South Carolina. The resolution also asked that the SCMA encourage the South Carolina Legislature to significantly increase the funding of the comprehensive tobacco control programs. This resolution was amended and adopted on April 27, 2002. Because of this resolution, the lobbyist of the SCMA will take the association’s policy to the hill and will lobby the appropriate legislatures to attempt to increase tobacco cessation and education programs.

For more information on this resolution, contact Kirk Peterson, University of South Carolina School of Medicine, at ckpete@prodigy.net

Student Tobacco Education Program
Midwestern University–Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine
The Midwestern University–Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine started a tobacco program in 1996 called the Student Tobacco Education Program (STEP), which entails 45 minute presentations given to 4^th through 6^th graders in local schools. In the last year, we estimate that Midwestern University students from all fields of study taught the dangers of smoking to over 1000 children.

Our presentations consist of a question and answer game in which groups of 4-5 students form teams that attempt to answer basic questions about smoking. Questions such as "What percentage of people start smoking before the age of 18 (30%, 60%, 90%)?" are answered on dry erase boards. The first group to answer the question correctly receives points. Interspersed throughout the 15 to 20 questions are props, which illustrate anatomical and physiological principles involved in the pathology of tobacco use. When discussing the contents of cigarettes, the "Jar of Tar," a glass jar filled with tar and a pack of cigarettes is passed around. The perfusion of smoke into a smoker’s lung is demonstrated with a pig lung that has been injected with black dye. The lung is connected to an air pump, which inflates and deflates the lung as the children observe and the presenter speaks.

Social aspects of tobacco use are illustrated with water bottles, one of which contains a cloth that smells bly of smoke and produces the supposed breath of a smoker. The children are asked if they would want to kiss someone with such delightful breath. Finally, two children are brought in front of the class and are asked to run in place for 20-30 seconds. They are then given a straw to breathe through and are told to once again run as fast as they can. The presenter teaches the students that smoking tobacco produces the same limiting effect on athletes. These are just a representation of the questions and demonstrations utilized.

At the end of the presentation, the presenter summarizes what has been taught and encourages the class to not use tobacco and also to support those who are trying to quit. Thereafter, the students are able to ask questions and all are rewarded with candy. After the formal presentation, they are able to come to the front and handle the props.

The program is advertised with letters sent in the fall and the spring to health coordinators or nurses at the local schools. The response from the community has been overwhelming. In fact, there are often more opportunities to give the presentations than there are Midwestern students available to visit the classrooms. In the upcoming year, our club intends to improve advertising to all Midwestern students in all disciplines in order to increase our ability to affect the lives of the children in our community. We are excited about the prospect of teaching even more children with this rewarding program.

For more information about STEP, contact the Adrian Harvey, Program Coordinator, at adrian.harvey@azwebmail.midwestern.edu or Asha Patel, Chapter President, at Asha.Patel@azwebmail.midwestern.edu

Tar Wars
University of Pittsburgh
This program plans to educate children about the dangers of smoking in an effort to decrease the incidence of smoking in the local community and support a smoke-free generation. The University of Pittsburgh’s MSS Chapter is coordinating this yearlong Tar Wars program to educate 4^th and 5^th grade students about the dangers of smoking & to help facilitate a smoke-free generation. The program centers on a 40-minute interactive presentation that involves the students participation along with providing them with easy to remember statistics about smoking. The Chapter’s goal is to complete 100 40-minute presentations throughout the school year.

For more information on this project, contact Drew Chronister, University of Pittsburgh, at drc26@pitt.edu

South Dakotans Against Tobacco (SDAT)
University of South Dakota
The University of South Dakota’s MSS chapter is organizing "South Dakotans Against Tobacco (SDAT)."The chapter has begun developing tobacco prevention and cessation programs in local communities. Regional seventh and eighth grade students have been selected as the target audience since research demonstrates that tobacco use begins early and substantially increases during the middle school years.

The goals of this program are to develop tobacco prevention and cessation programs in local communities by educating children under the age of 18 about the health risks associated with tobacco use through events such as middle school assemblies, classroom visits, and a student anti-tobacco contest.

The chapter anticipates accomplishing their goals through these events in the following manner:

Middle School Assemblies: SDAT plans to utilize assemblies to showcase local patients suffering from the effects of prolonged tobacco use. These assemblies will include a slide show of oral and pulmonary cancers from our school’s pathology collection.
Classroom Visits: In the first few days following the school assemblies, pairs of volunteer medical students from USDSM will address individual middle school classrooms. In these interactive sessions, kids will learn more about the dangers of tobacco use, peer pressure, tobacco advertising, and tobacco cessation. Students will also be given ample opportunity to ask questions about tobacco use.
Student Anti-tobacco Contest: Students will be given the opportunity to enter an anti-tobacco poster into a regional contest. The top three winning entries will receive small cash prizes and have their posters printed in the area’s regional newspaper (The Argus Leader).

For more information on this project, contact Paul Veldhouse, University of South Dakota, at pveldhou@usd.edu

Tar Wars Program – No Butts About it!!
Uniformed Services University
The Uniformed Services University MSS chapter is targeting fifth graders at inner city schools in the Washington metropolitan area by helping them understand the dangers of smoking. They have purchased visual aids from E-Nasco, a web company that sells Hands on Health Visual Aids. The visual aids have been purchased to facilitate the fifth graders’ involvement in the presentations and to better demonstrate the negative effects and consequences of smoking. These aids include: Mr. Dip-Lip, Giant My Gross Mouth, Smoked Lung Model, Smokey Sue, and Replacement Tubes.

Fifty medical student volunteers will be participating in the Tar Wars program by giving the presentations. The students are first- and second-year medical students from the Uniformed Services University School of Medicine. The MSS chapter members will continue to visit the inner city schools every Friday afternoon during the academic year to establish this service project as a permanent one.

The chapter plans to test the success of their program by giving the fifth graders a survey/quiz before the session to see how much they know about the dangers of smoking and then giving them a quick, fun quiz after each tar wars session to see how much they have learned from the medical students volunteer's presentation. The goal is to help fifth graders understand the dangers of smoking.

For more information on this project, contact Khayanga Namasaka, Uniformed Services University, at s5knamasaka@usuhs.mil

D.O.C. – Docs Ought to Care Tobacco Awareness Carnival
University of Nebraska
The Doctors Ought to Care (D.O.C.) Carnival was established as an interactive approach to educate middle school students about the dangers of tobacco use. The carnival is designed to involve students in games that promote healthy behaviors, provide information about the advertising of tobacco products, and educate about potential consequences of tobacco use. The carnival begins with a 15-minute introduction and short video clip discussing tobacco use in the middle-school age group. After a short discussion, the students are divided up into teams of ten that each have a high school student as their ‘coach’. Each team creates a name and a cheer, and then the carnival begins.

The three stations of the carnival consist of:

Bandage the Smoker: teams must mummify teammates in toilet paper (a discussion about the harmful effects of smoking and what tobacco can do to the body).
Bop Joe Camel: Balls are thrown at posters with the Joe Camel character (a discussion is held about the use of advertising to try to get teenagers to buy cigarettes—throwing the balls is our way of rejecting these advertisements).
"Trash" the cigarettes: each team member tries to throw a carton of cigarettes into the trashcan (discussion about how to reject peer pressure).

Points acquired by each team at each station are recorded and displayed in the front of the gym. The final activity is Get the Smoker to the Doctor. This is a relay race that requires running team members across the gym (and around the mascot) on a stretcher. The afternoon ends with a wrap-up session and discussion about what was learned from each of the activities. Medals and T-shirts are distributed to each of the participants.

For more information on this project, contact Michael Feilmeier, University of Nebraska, at mfeilmei@unmc.edu

Homeless Health Smoking Cessation Program
University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)
The UCSF Homeless Health Smoking Cessation Program provides free smoking cessation treatment to residents of a San Francisco homeless shelter who are interested in quitting smoking. The goals of the program are to help participants reduce or cease their consumption of cigarettes, provide a supportive environment for discussion and learning about behavior change, provide mood management techniques, and help participants gain greater control over their lives.

Nicotine addition has many components. To combat the physiological aspects, the program offers pharmacological treatment in the form of bupropion (Zyban, Wellbutrin) and transdermal nicotine patches. However, smoking also contains a large psychological component. Smoking is a habit that is learned from repetition and reinforcement. For many, it is also a mechanism of coping with negative emotions like stress, anger, loneliness, tiredness, and boredom. To address these more pervasive psychological factors, the program provides support groups that are based in cognitive behavioral therapy. The support groups, which meet for 1½ hours nine times over the course of seven weeks, are emphasized as the most important component of treatment. These support groups are facilitate by medical students, who lead discussions and teach practical strategies for quitting smoking through mood management. Additionally, the students provide nutrition education and relaxation training.

The program has graduated a number of successful participants. Many stopped smoking or reduced their daily cigarette intake significantly. Furthermore, participants attribute many other health changes to participation in the program. In addition to reducing cigarette consumption, many people cite such benefits as improved self-esteem, employment, improved relations with people, and decreases in other substance use.

The protocol of the UCSF Smoking Cessation Program has been adopted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) for a multi-center study on quitting smoking. In November 2002, Kim Norman, MD, the faculty advisor, and students involved in the program made a presentation on the UCSF Smoking Cessation Program at the 2002 National Conference on Tobacco or Health in San Francisco and at the AMA-Medical Student Section Region 1 meeting in Las Vegas.

Our newest goal is to share information about the UCSF Smoking Cessation Program so that medical students at other schools can start programs in their own communities. Smoking cessation programs do not have to take place among the homeless, as the UCSF program does, but can implemented in any population of interest and using any language.

If you would like to start a smoking cessation program in your own community or if you are interested in receiving more information about the UCSF Smoking Cessation Program, please contact Kim Norman, MD, UCSF Clinical Professor, at knorman@itsa.ucsf.edu or (415) 476-7402.

Rochester Salvation Army Smoking Cessation Clinic
Mayo Medical School

The Rochester Salvation Army Smoking Cessation Clinic, staffed by Mayo Medical School students, offers counseling and medications to help those who want to stop smoking and cannot afford to do so. Started in 1997 by a Mayo Medical School student, the program provides information and medications such as nicotine patches, nicotine gum and Zyban (bupropion). The Salvation Army Smoking Cessation Clinic is open each Monday from 6 to 8 pm and is staffed by two to three medical students each night. Medical students serve as counselors to patients and determine their need for nicotine patches, nicotine gum, and oral medications under physician supervision. The mission is to serve as an extension of the efforts of the Salvation Army and the Salvation Army Free Medical Clinic by providing medical assistance and supplies to an underserved population. Patients are motivated to quit smoking through a 12-week program. Patients receive counseling, medications, and support while undergoing treatment, thus enjoying a smoke-free, healthy life as a result.

Dr. Hurt, Director of the Nicotine Dependence Center, notes: "The Salvation Army Smoking Cessation Clinic clearly addresses an important community need and offers Mayo medical students a valuable volunteer clinical experience."

For more information, contact Rheanna Platt at platt.rheanna@mayo.edu

The Extinguisher
AMA Alliance
The Extinguisher, created by the AMA Alliance, is anti-smoking superhero expressly designed for children in your community. He lives as a positive role model who delivers a b anti-tobacco message to children in your area. In his straightforward performance, he reaches out to kids and parents alike. The Extinguisher’s presentation is a success because:

kids love this masked man in his purple cape
his anti-tobacco message captivates and motivates them
he talks to kids with respect and sincerity
kids often become visibly empowered by his presence and presentation

Any interested party, who is committed to ensuring children’s health and the fight against tobacco, can rent the Extinguisher costume—which comes complete with muscles—for one week for $250. The costume comes with a script, cartoon handouts, and care instructions. A $750 deposit will be charged at the time of rental and refunded when the costume is returned undamaged.

The Extinguisher is ideal for 2^nd – 4^th graders, ages 6-10. A performance lasts 30-35 minutes. Small groups (under 50) are usually more effective, but his presentation can be adapted for a larger audience. By requesting the Extinguisher costume, your children will join nearly 750,000 kids who have already felt his presence. From national rallies on the White House lawn to county health fairs, the Extinguisher has been there. He has been featured on hundreds of local television stations and newspapers. He has captivated the attention of kids, parents, and leaders across the country.

For more information on the Extinguisher, visit the Alliance’s website at http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/2839.html To request the Extinguisher costume, call (312) 464-4481.

"They're Rich, You're Dead"
Medical School Smoking Prevention Community Project Targeting Youths

Project Idea:
In this project, medical students present a potent, clinically oriented tobacco awareness video to community youths who are at a pivotal age when they are first tempted to smoke. The basic project is simple:

Our "They're Rich, You're Dead" Tobacco Awareness video (see below) is presented by any interested medical student to any young audience of their choice in their community (e.g. middle school, high school, college group, volunteer youth group, church group, etc.) and the medical student then fields audience questions.
The medical student prepares for the session by reviewing the companion video study plan, which contains answers to most questions that young audiences commonly raise after seeing the video (e.g. If tobacco is so bad, why is it legal? How does smoking hurt me right now as a teenager? How long does it take to become addicted? How can tobacco addicts be helped to quit? What is the risk if you don't quit? What are the short and long term benefits of quitting? What are the hazards of breathing second hand smoke? Is smoking cigars, pipes, filtered or low tar cigarettes safer? Is smoking marijuana safer? etc.)
Since this is a non-profit community service, the video is available to any individual health professional student at copying cost by calling our fulfillment company at 1-800-654-5765 (e.g. 2 or 10 copies cost $15 or $7.25 apiece respectively plus UPS shipping and handling). The video study plan is free with a video request.

Description Of Video: The two-part video includes a medically illustrated RAP song, social outrage toward big tobacco companies and their advertisements, and powerful testimonies from teen and adult smokers on their tobacco addiction (part 1, running time 16 min.); and medically illustrated patient histories followed by simple explanations of how smoking caused their diseases (part 2, running time 24 min.).

The video was aired more than 5 times on WPLG-TV in South Florida, placed on the Dade County "Teacher's Choice" Public School TV Network, and received "Top Honors" from a panel of teenage reviewers in NYC who evaluated 10 other anti-smoking videos along with ours for The American College of Chest Physicians. It can be sampled on our Web Site www.mededu.miami.edu/Tobacco with a fast Internet connection and the plug-in Real Player.

A large font table and color images with succinct companion narratives on the consequences of tobacco use in youths and adults, the tar in two Marlboro and two marijuana cigarettes, and a tobacco ad juxtaposed to patients with smoking related diseases (emphysema, throat cancer and coronary heart disease) can all be downloaded from our website www.mededu.miami.edu/Tobacco and used to supplement the video presentation.

If there is interest and time for additional session(s), two interactive CD ROMS are also available from the fulfillment company at copying cost and can be presented via a computer projector. These include color illustrated, interactive exercises conducted by teenagers on critical thinking and decision making with respect to tobacco use, analysis of tobacco ads and counter-ads, a true false test on teen smoking, RAP kareoke, and how to say "NO."

You are free to make additional copies of the video, video study plan, and interactive CD ROMS provided that they continue to be used for non-profit community service and are not edited.

Project Purpose:

Tobacco awareness raising among adolescents
Training of health professional students on how to raise awareness among adolescents regarding the devastating impact of tobacco on health.

We will be happy to work with any individual who is interested in implementing the proposed project at his/her medical school (i.e. presenting one or more sessions). You will learn a lot about tobacco addiction, tobacco-related diseases, and how to influence tobacco-free behavior among youths. In addition, you will perform an invaluable community service.

Since smoking is by far the leading preventable cause of death in the United States and 90% of smokers start before the age of 20. Prevention of smoking in adolescents represents one of the greatest public health opportunities of our time. Our only aim is to reach as many adolescents as possible with an impactful anti-smoking message, which is delivered to them by health professional students.

Individual medical students interested in this community project may obtain copies of the above materials (video, video study plan, and interactive CD-ROMS) at non-profit copying cost by calling our fulfillment company, Accord Broadcasting, at 1-800-654-5765. AMA medical school chapters interested in implementing this community project may obtain a free copy of the above materials (while samples last) by having a chapter officer request them via e-mail at arthurpit@aol.com

Contact Information:

Arthur Pitchenik, MD
Professor, University of Miami School of Medicine
Director, Tobacco Awareness Program for Community Youths
Chief, Pulmonary Section, VA Medical Center
1201 NW 16th Street, (111F), Miami, Florida 33125
E-Mail: arthurpit@aol.com
Phone: 305-324-3170
"They're Rich, You're Dead" web address www.mededu.miami.edu/Tobacco

Tar Wars
American Academy of Family Physicians
Tar Wars^® was founded in response to the growing, yet preventable, health crisis caused by tobacco. Targeting fourth- and fifth-grade students, the award-winning, youth tobacco-free education program and poster contest of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) adopts an effective and innovative approach to teaching tobacco prevention. The program focuses on the short-term, image-based consequences of tobacco use and how to think critically about tobacco advertising. A follow-up poster contest at the school, state, and national levels is conducted to reinforce the Tar Wars message.

The Tar Wars lesson is presented annually to approximately 400,000 fourth- and fifth-grade students by health care professionals and educators. Tar Wars also provides health care professionals, school personnel, and community members the opportunity to form coalitions that share the common goal of discouraging tobacco use among children.

The AAFP invites you to organize or participate in a Tar Wars program in your area. The Tar Wars curriculum, including sample activities that can be done in the classroom, can be downloaded from their website at http://www.tarwars.org/curriculum.xml If you are interested in becoming a volunteer presenter, state/regional coordinator, or corporate sponsor, please contact Sarah McMullen, Tar Wars National Manager, at smcmulle@aafp.org

Smoking In Movies
Recent research has shown that children who watch movies with a lot of smoking are more likely to smoke than kids who see little smoking in the movies. In addition, children whose parents restrict their viewing of R rated movies—-which use the have the most smoking—are less likely to smoke. After Congress pressed Hollywood to scale back the promotion of R movies to kids, smoking in G, PG, and PG-13 movies greatly increased in 2000-2001.

Jack Valenti, President of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), has said that smoking is not considered in the ratings system because "Cigarettes are legal so how could you have it affect the rating of a picture?" The MPAA established ratings for all movies shown in U.S. theaters and restricts many things that are legal (i.e., sex and language) from G, PG, and PG-13 movies, which are designed for younger audiences. Jack Valenti has also said that smoking is not considered in the ratings system because parents have not requested it.

A simple but effective project could be to send a letter to Jack Valenti at the MPAA letting him know that any movie with tobacco use deserves an R rating. You can address your letter to: Jack Valenti, Motion Picture Association of America, 1600 Eye Street NW, Washington, DC 20006, (202) 293-1966, jvalenti@mpaa.org.

For more talking points on why an R rating is necessary for movies containing smoking, go to http://www.smokefreemovies.ucsf.edu/solution/r_rating.html

The World No Tobacco Day Turnkey Idea Kit
Coalition for World No Tobacco Day
The Coalition for World No Tobacco Day is a not-for-profit organization established to create awareness about the human and economic tolls of tobacco and to improve public health by encouraging observance of the World Health Organization’s global World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) event celebrated annually on May 31^st. The Coalition is comprised of more than 30 esteemed non-profit and for-profit organizations. Members include the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, American Lung Association, and the Pan American Health Organization. Since 1999, the Coalition for World No Tobacco Day has conducted national activities to reach people across the country. Last year, the Coalition reached more than 39 million people with its message urging tobacco users to quit for WNTD on May 31st and encouraging teenagers not to start.

The Coalition has compiled ideas for local activities that you may consider using to implement a campaign in observance of WNTD or to supplement your current WNTD activities. Each suggestion includes a description of the concept, steps to roll out the activity, and anticipated outcomes. Also provided is a list of resources to help you plan and implement the activities. Each idea can stand-alone or can be used in combination with other activities. These tactics can be tailored to suit the needs of your local community. The Idea Kit can be downloaded on the WNTD website at http://www.wntd.org/flash/wntd_coalition/pdf/turnkey_kit2002.pdf (PDF file)

For your convenience, initiatives have been divided into youth- and adult-oriented activities. Once you have chosen the activities that you would like to implement, it may be useful to develop a specific action plan and schedule to help set your campaign in motion. The Idea Kit provides a sketch of activities in which your organization might wish to participate, and you are encouraged to be creative to make these ideas work for you and your community.

To reinforce its commitment to WNTD and working toward a tobacco-free world, the Coalition offers community-based grants available to several organizations participating in the turnkey kit or other WNTD activities. Upon completion of the program’s application and approval of the activities, applicants may receive up to $2,000 for participating in WNTD initiatives. For application information, visit http://www.wntd.org/flash/wntd_coalition/pdf/seed_grant_app.pdf (PDF file)

If you are interested in learning more about how to plan activities in your community, please contact the Coalition for World No Tobacco Day at 212-601-8245.

Youth Telling the Truth About Tobacco Advertising
AMA Resident and Fellow Section (RFS)
The AMA-RFS teamed up with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Office on Smoking and Health, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Partnership for Media Education, and the Media Wise Initiative of the University of Arizona to sponsor a tobacco use prevention contest. The contest, "Youth Tell the Truth About Tobacco Advertising," was open to all 6^th through 8^th graders in the US. The purpose of the contest was to help young people critically assess how tobacco advertising and other media messages normalize and glamorize tobacco use.

Students were asked to analyze tobacco ads and then create counter-ads that tell the REAL truth about tobacco usage. Students also wrote a short essay about their experience in creating a counter-ad. More specifically, the counter-ad contest suggested that each interested teacher conduct a lesson with the students (one class period in length) on analyzing tobacco advertising; provide a second class period for the students to begin designing their counter-advertisements; encourage the students to be creative and to complete their contest entries as described on the contest entry form; post all the students’ work in an exhibit area for the rest of the school to see; conduct judging at their school of all contest entries and select the top two for submission; and assist the students who created the top two entries to complete the entry form and submit their entries for statewide competition. In addition, students were encouraged to share what they learned, carry the message out into the community, and think of ways that they could protect the next target audience...their younger brothers and sisters.

This contest was designed to support the growing national emphasis on media literacy—the ability to "read," analyze, and produce media messages. The grand prize winner received a $500 savings bond and a trip (with one parent) to the AMA-RFS 2000 Interim Meeting in Orlando, Florida; five runners-up received $100 savings bonds.

For more information on this project, contact the AMA Department of Resident and Fellow Services, at rfs@ama-assn.org

Joe Chemo
Would you like to....

spice up your antismoking event?
make a classroom activity memorable?
get the attention of local or national media?

A full-body costume of Joe Chemo is freely available to qualified groups and individuals for a nominal shipping and handling fee. Joe Chemo was developed as an anti-smoking character by Scott Plous, a psychology professor at Wesleyan University, after his father nearly died from smoking. The idea was to present a more honest image of smoking than the Joe Camel character used by R. J. Reynolds.

To book the costume for an anti-smoking event, please email Anne Landman at afoxland@starband.net or contact her at:

Anne Landman
American Lung Association of Colorado
Glade Park Office
P.O. Box 23105
Glade Park, CO 81523
(970) 263-9199
Fax (970) 263-9799

"I Can't Breathe—A Smoker's Story"
"I Can't Breathe—A Smoker's Story" is now available from CDC's Office on Smoking and Health. "I Can't Breathe" is a story of Pam Laffin, a 31-year-old mother of two young girls who died from emphysema. In the program, Pam tells why she started smoking and what it was like to learn she had emphysema, a smoking-related disease for which there is no cure. Pam tells with poignant detail, as she struggles to breathe, how the disease has devastated her life. Despite her debilitating illness, Pam was committed to sharing her story so others might learn from her. It is Pam's greatest wish that others who hear her words, will make different choices about smoking, act on those choices, and stay healthy.

The 20-minute video, coupled with a Moderator's Guide, is designed to help lead classroom discussions with students about the consequences of cigarette smoking. The program has been created specifically for young people 11 to 14 years old. In the video, Dr. Locicero, the Chief of Thoracic Surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts, explains the medical consequences of smoking, lung disease, the diagnosis of emphysema, and the medical complications that follow. Dr. Locicero also provides an explanation of a healthy human lung, which he compares to the lungs of a smoker.

To order single or bulk quantities, please visit the CDC's Web site. Requests will be filled based on total number of requests and the quantities available at this time.

Last updated: Feb 25, 2008
Content provided by: Medical Student Services