Every year, on May 31, the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners mark “World No Tobacco Day” (WNTD), highlighting the health and additional risks associated with tobacco use. People can contribute on an individual level to making a sustainable, tobacco-free world. Individuals can commit to avoiding tobacco use altogether. Those who do use tobacco can quit the habit or seek help in doing so. Quitting will protect their health as well as others exposed to second-hand smoke, including...

Campus Clean-up Uncovers Pervasive Cigarette Butt Litter Advancing Tobacco Free Communities of Delaware, Schoharie, and Otsego Counties (ATFC-DOS) participated in the 2018 SUNY Cobleskill Campus Clean-up Day on Thursday, April 26. Five student volunteers assisted new Reality Check/Youth Engagement Coordinator Bonnie Peck with the clean-up by flagging tobacco waste including cigarette butts, cigarillo tips, and even e-cigarette “pods” from areas around Wieting Hall and Van Wagenen Library....

Dear Editor, I am concerned about the tobacco industry using flavors in their toxic products to lure kids into a lifelong addiction. Unfortunately, the tobacco industry does not stop at the use of flavors. It also uses kid-friendly packaging and advertising to deceive kids into thinking their products are harmless. This, coupled with unchecked online purchasing, gets tobacco products past parents and teachers and straight into the hands of kids. All of this is a recipe for disaster. The...

Dear Editor, Did you know that tobacco use is another addiction that permeates our communities? 28,200 adults die each year statewide from smoking-related diseases. There may be an opioid overdose crisis in this country, but cigarettes still kill 15 times more people. In fact, cigarettes kill more people in the United States than alcohol, car crashes, AIDS, illegal drugs, murders and suicides combined. In Schoharie County, the current smoking rate is 19.3 percent, in Delaware County it is 22.9...

Smoking is still a problem. Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable disease and death in New York State, killing 28,200 individuals every year. Learn more about tobacco issues and ways to create healthier communities by attending the Seen Enough Tobacco public presentation at the Sidney Memorial Public Library at 8 River Street on Thursday, April 19 at 6:30 p.m. Linda Wegner, Program Director of Advancing Tobacco Free Communities in Delaware, Otsego and Schoharie Counties (ATFC-DOS),...

In celebration and recognition of National Public Health Week, the Otsego County Department of Health organized and held a Living Healthier Expo on April 7 and 8, 2018 at the Foothills Performing Arts Center in Oneonta. Advancing Tobacco Free Communities in Delaware, Otsego and Schoharie Counties (ATFC-DOS) had a staffed booth at the two-day event and collaborated with the Otsego County Department of Health to designate the expo as a tobacco-free event. Secondhand smoke exposure is detrimental...

Dear Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) President, We are a group of Reality Check youth from Cherry Valley-Springfield Central School in Otsego County in upstate New York. Reality Check is the youth advocacy program of Advancing Tobacco Free Communities. We know that in 2012, the U.S. Surgeon General concluded that smoking imagery in movies causes youth to smoke. The Centers for Disease Control estimates that exposure to on-screen smoking will recruit 6.4 million youth to become...

On March 21, Kick Butts Day, Reality Check youth advocates across New York State called on communities to pave the way to a tobacco-free generation. Each year the national tobacco-free day aims to increase awareness about the problem of tobacco use. Reality Check, the youth component of Advancing Tobacco Free Communities, urged teens, adults, and local and state decision-makers to get the facts and take action to protect youth from tobacco marketing in stores. At several local venues in...

Reality Check, the youth program of Advancing Tobacco Free Communities, hosted a family movie event in Cobleskill recently. Megan Kemraj advocated to reduce smoking in youth-rated movies. In 2012, the U.S. Surgeon General concluded that smoking imagery in movies causes youth to smoke. The CDC estimates that exposure to on-screen smoking will recruit 6.4 million youth to become smokers. 50% of kid-rated movies nominated for the 2018 Academy Awards program showed smoking. Jillian Johnson shared...

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced that the adult smoking rate has fallen to the lowest in New York State's recorded history as a result of the state's wide-ranging tobacco cessation and prevention efforts. The statewide adult smoking rate is 14.2 percent as of 2016, a 22 percent decline from 2011 and below the national average of 15.5 percent. "These record lows demonstrate that New York's anti-smoking efforts are working," said Governor Cuomo. "Reducing smoking -- and the death and...