New York State (NYS) Tobacco Control Partners and Reality Check youth visited Albany February 6 to share their successes and focus attention on unmet needs in tobacco control efforts statewide. Throughout New York, 33.7% of those with mental illness, 27.5% with less than a high school education and 26.8% who earn less than $15,000 a year smoke cigarettes. Tobacco kills more people each year than alcohol use, illegal drug use, car accidents, homicide and HIV/AIDS combined. Representatives from...

Tranquility Cleveland and Riley Mance, 7th grade students at Cherry Valley-Springfield Central School and Reality Check youth advocates with Advancing Tobacco Free Communities in Delaware, Otsego and Schoharie Counties (ATFC-DOS), sat down with NYS Assemblyman Brian Miller (Assembly District 101) at his office in New Hartford last week to talk about the negative impacts of tobacco use. Linda Wegner, Program Director with ATFC-DOS and Deyanira Cisneros, Community Engagement Coordinator with...

The good news is that due to tobacco control measures, the current smoking rate among adults in New York State is 14.2 percent. However, the bad news is that the percent of New York State youth who have ever tried and currently use e-cigarettes doubled from 2014 to 2016 according to recently released data in the NYS Youth Tobacco Survey. Electronic cigarettes and similar devices (also referred to as e-cigarettes, vape pens, mods, and e-hookahs) are the most frequently used tobacco products...

A coalition of affordable housing advocates from New York State may soon launch a campaign encouraging Governor Andrew Cuomo to pass stronger rent laws and to develop additional affordable housing. Around the topic of housing advocacy, an increasing number of multi-unit housing owners and managers are protecting their tenants’ health and their investment by adopting smoke-free policies for their properties.  Property owners have gone smoke-free in order to lower maintenance costs and improve...

The Sharon Springs Free Library recently adopted a tobacco-free policy to help create a healthier community. The library is the fourth public library in Schoharie County who are all members of the Mohawk Valley Library System to go tobacco-free. The library board of trustees recognized that the library is an important community and cultural center and the use of tobacco products on library property negatively affects everyone who spends time at the library’s facilities. Effective November 1,...

Tobacco companies are launching a court-mandated ad campaign admitting that they lied to the American public about their deadly and addictive products for decades. However, despite the ads admission that the companies intentionally made cigarettes more addictive and that all cigarettes cause cancer, that’s not the whole story. Tobacco is the only product that, when used as intended by its manufacturers, kills. “The court also found the tobacco companies guilty of lying about marketing their...

According to a 2015 survey of veteran enrollees’ health, 62 percent (5.2 million) of the entire Veterans Administration enrollee population has ever smoked. Vincent Scalise, executive director and founder of the Utica Center for Development, Inc., which recently opened the Catskill Veterans Outreach Center in Stamford, knows first-hand the challenges that active duty military and veterans have with tobacco use. As a reformed smoker and veteran, he knows the enormous toll tobacco use takes on...

The use of tobacco products on Grapevine Farms’ property and facilities in Cobleskill negatively affects everyone who works and spends time there. Knowing that fact, owners Tim and Tracy Purcell recently adopted a tobacco-free policy. Staff from Advancing Tobacco Free Communities of Delaware, Otsego and Schoharie Counties (ATFC-DOS) presented some tobacco-free zone signage to the Purcells to post to help educate visitors about the tobacco-free policy that took effect October 1. Tim Purcell...

The Brick House Bakery in the Village of Cobleskill has taken the lead among local businesses to promote the community’s health and welfare by recently adopting a tobacco-free outdoors policy. Effective September 1, 2017, The Bakery will prohibit employees, patrons and community members from using any tobacco products on its property, grounds and parking lots. Tobacco products are defined as any manufactured product containing tobacco or nicotine including but not limited to cigarettes,...

Some students majoring in applied psychology at SUNY Cobleskill helped implement a telephone survey of residents in Delaware, Otsego and Schoharie Counties in cooperation with Advancing Tobacco Free Communities (ATFC) recently. The approved survey included questions to measure smoking behavior as well as attitudes towards tobacco use and community tobacco control policies. According to Linda Wegner, Program Director for ATFC-DOS, “The data collected will help ATFC make strategic decisions...