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The Communities Putting Prevention to Work initiative announced today by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which includes support for strategies to reduce tobacco use, is a smart investment in the nation's health that will save lives, prevent disease and help reduce health care costs.� This investment, made possible by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, will also create jobs and strengthen the nation's public health infrastructure, which will help build stronger, healthier communities.
The HHS initiative will provide a total of $650 million for evidence-based prevention and wellness strategies that reduce tobacco use, increase physical activity, improve nutrition and decrease obesity.� In the first part of this initiative, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today announced that communities and tribes can apply for $373 million in grants to address these public health challenges under the leadership of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
We urge communities and tribes applying for these grants to include evidence-based strategies and programs that are proven to reduce tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke.� There are few public health measures that have a stronger evidence base than the programs and policies that have significantly reduced tobacco use in states and communities across the country.� Research and experience have demonstrated conclusively that comprehensive tobacco prevention and cessation programs reduce tobacco use, save lives and save money by reducing tobacco-related health care costs.
In California, adult smoking rates were reduced by 35 percent after implementation of its pioneering Tobacco Control Program
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Cathy Hedrick is the Director of Survivor Programs for the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. Cathy began volunteering with the Foundation during the 1993 National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Weekend after her firefighter son, Kenny Hedrick, was killed in the line-of-duty while responding to a home fire caused by a cigarette. She joined the Foundation staff in 2004 after a 30-year career in nursing. Based out of the Foundation's Crofton, MD office, Cathy works with the Taking Care of Our Own training program, manages family registration during the Memorial Weekend, and makes presentations at local, state and national fire service meetings.
The Communities Putting Prevention to Work initiative announced today by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which includes support for strategies to reduce tobacco use, is a smart investment in the nation's health that will save lives, prevent disease and help reduce health care costs. This investment, made possible by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, will also create jobs and strengthen the nation's public health infrastructure, which will help build stronger, healthier communities.
The HHS initiative will provide a total of $650 million for evidence-based prevention and wellness strategies that reduce tobacco use, increase physical activity, improve nutrition and decrease obesity. In the first part of this initiative, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today announced that communities and tribes can apply for $373 million in grants to address these public health challenges under the leadership of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
We urge communities and tribes applying for these grants to include evidence-based strategies and programs that are proven to reduce tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke.
About 1 out of every 5 women in America smokes, and women are starting to smoke at younger and younger ages. Did you know that lung cancer kills more women every year than breast cancer? More deaths are caused each year by tobacco use than by all deaths from AIDS, illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, suicides, and murders combined.
Smoking can also affect more than just your lungs. Smoking can increase your risk for heart attack, stroke, osteoporosis (thinning or weakening of your bones), and cancers other than lung cancer. It can also reduce your ability to get pregnant and increase your chances of having problems with your pregnancy.
This section of womenshealth.gov will help you and the people you love to not smoke! Along with information on the health effects of smoking, we provide you with resources to help you quit if you are a smoker. We encourage you to learn as much as you can about smoking and share this information with your loved ones. Remember, it's best not to start smoking. If you do smoke, don't give up on quitting. We know how hard quitting can be, but you'll be glad you did! Being smoke-free will help you to live longer with better health.
Kathleen G. Sebelius: I am pleased Congress has taken swift action to pass the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. �The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulation of tobacco products will be a critical piece of a coordinated effort to save lives, lower costs and reduce suffering from heart disease, cancer and other tobacco-related illness. �This is a great step towards a healthier America.
Margaret A. Hamburg: The FDA welcomes the authority given to us by Congress to regulate tobacco products. Because smoking and chewing tobacco cause serious public health problems, we view our new responsibilities as a logical extension of our public health mission to protect and to advance the health of Americans. As we do with foods, drugs and medical products, the agency will rely on the best available science in fulfilling its regulatory responsibilities concerning tobacco.
Today’s vote was a victory in the fight to protect public health, and reduce the death and suffering tobacco products cause every year. This legislation is a key part of our plans to cut health care costs and reduce the number of Americans who smoke. I hope the House will act quickly and approve this legislation. Our department looks forward to implementing this critical legislation and continuing our work to reduce tobacco use.
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today welcomed Deputy Secretary Bill Corr and Indian Health Service Director Dr. Yvette Roubideaux to the Department of Health and Human Services. Corr and Roubideaux were confirmed unanimously by the Senate on Wednesday evening.
"Bill Corr's policy expertise and management experience will be invaluable as we work together to manage the Department and pass and implement comprehensive health reform," Secretary Sebelius said. "Bill knows our department inside and out, and I look forward to partnering with him in the years ahead."
President-elect Barack Obama today announced the nomination of William V. Corr, Executive Director of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, as Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services. President-elect Obama has made an outstanding choice. Bill Corr has dedicated his life to improving the health and health care of all Americans. His knowledge, experience and dedication will be invaluable in helping President-elect Obama and Health and Human Services Secretary-Designate Tom Daschle to achieve their far-reaching agenda for improving the health of our nation.
In a year 2008 report released Tuesday, the American Lung Association gives the federal government a failing grade on tobacco regulation.
In addition, the report faults the federal government for failing to require Medicaid coverage of smoking cessation treatments; and failing to raise the federal cigarette tax. The American Lung Association also wants the Senate to ratify an international tobacco control treaty.
All of it is likely to happen on Barack Obama's watch. For starters, Obama on Monday named Willliam Corr to serve as deputy secretary at the Health and Human Services Department. . . .
In announcing Corr's appointment, Obama said overhauling the nation's health care system would be a top priority and a key to putting the economy back on track.
"Under the leadership of Tom Daschle and Bill Corr, I am confident that my Department of Health and Human Services will bring people together to reach consensus on how to move forward with health care reform," Obama was quoted as saying in a prepared statement. . . .
"Our new leaders in Washington have an unprecedented opportunity to change the direction of public health by taking steps that ultimately will save millions of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars for the American economy," said Charles D. Connor, president and CEO of the American Lung Association.
"During these economically challenged times, it simply cannot be ignored that investing in tobacco prevention and cessation programs is one of the most cost effective ways to improve our nation's health while trimming the bottom line," Connor said in a news release on Tuesday.
After President-elect Barack Obama fills out his cabinet appointments, he will turn to appointing new leadership for the government agencies with the power to regulate industry—a process that will likely bring an end to what has become known as the Bush administration’s “war on science.” . . . “The current FDA senior management blocked clinical trials, drove dedicated medical professionals out of the agency, and lined their pockets with outrageous bonuses,” Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) wrote to Obama last week. “A new Commissioner or Interim Commissioner must bring the Agency back to the forefront of science, integrity, and transparency.”
During the campaign, Obama vowed to allow the FDA to regulate tobacco. Giving the FDA new authority to regulate tobacco would vastly expand its power. While Stupak severely criticized Bush’s FDA chief, von Eschenbach, a spokesman from Stupak’s office said he had not pressed Obama to nominate anyone in particular. . . .
Obama is more likely to consider the Emanuel household for a highly qualified candidate for one of the government’s public health posts.
Emmanuel's brother, Ezekiel Emanuel, one of the nation’s leading bio-ethicists, is an oft-mentioned candidate for a presidential appointment.
Another possibility is that a "Friend of Barack", or FOB, could end up as the nation’s next surgeon general. Eric Whitaker was a graduate student at Harvard’s public health school when Obama attended the law school. Whitaker became the chief of the Illinois Department of Public Health and worked at the University of Chicago’s Hospital with Michelle Obama.
“Tom Daschle is a disaster appointment, the opposite of a national protector of health and human services,” Jill Stanek, the head of BornAliveTruth, the anti-abortion group that ran advertisements against Obama during the election, told the Catholic News Agency. “Daschle ardently supports abortion … and he disdains abstinence education. The only reason Obama appointed Daschle was to assure Obama’s radical support of the abortion industry would be extended through HHS.”
CNSNews.com, a project of L. Brent Bozell III’s Media Research Center, pointed out that Daschle had “an overwhelmingly pro-abortion rights voting record while a US Senator, according to voting records as far back as 1994.”
The mission of Health and Human Services is to protect the health of all Americans and provide essential human services, especially for those who are least able to help themselves.
The greatest strength of former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle is his insider's knowledge of the upper chamber. But as President-elect Barack Obama's choice for secretary of Health and Human Services, Daschle also could present serious challenges in the form of old grudges and partisan paybacks.
Daschle developed his political acumen during more than two decades as a formidable Democratic player, and GOP operatives fear his re-emergence on the Hill as Obama's health care consigliere could spur flashbacks.
"His appointment sends a signal of a take-no-prisoners approach to health care that is at odds with the overall tone of the new administration. It's going to be ugly for a lot of sectors," said a Republican health care consultant.
Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle has agreed to be President-elect Barack Obama's nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services of the United States, a Democratic official confirmed to NPR on Wednesday.
"The administration would strongly oppose this legislation," the secretary of health and human services, Michael Leavitt, said in a July 21 letter to Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas. Barton is the senior Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which approved the bill on a 38-12 vote in April. At the time, 11 Republicans on the committee voted in favor of the legislation.
Last week Chris Downey, the regional director, of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, continued to press to get his pro-Bush propaganda out in defense of his boss vetoing the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.
I would like for this highly paid bureaucrat Downey to publicly address ‘why’ this Bush Administration has been ‘silent’ against Big and Brutal Tobacco. . . .
Invite Downey to explain why the word ‘tobacco’ is not in any State of the Union addresses by GWB.
I would bet my life that President Bush vetoed SCHIP to block the tobacco tax increase.
Maybe one day when Downey’s fat and faithful retirement check is locked in he will write a book telling ‘all’ the truth for a profit.