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As Mother's Day approaches, many smokers can give their mothers and themselves the gift of health by quitting. The holiday is an excellent opportunity to quit smoking for Mom, or for mothers to quit smoking for their kids. QUITPLAN(R) Services can help Minnesotans quit smoking, whether it's on Mother's Day or at any other time of the year. Created by ClearWay Minnesota(SM), QUITPLAN Services provide free professional counseling and a variety of help options for those looking to quit.
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Tomorrow marks the 10-year anniversary of Minnesota's historic settlement with the tobacco industry. The settlement and the trial leading up to it made national headlines for exposing millions of tobacco industry documents and for creating ClearWay Minnesota, an independent nonprofit organization dedicated exclusively to eliminating the harm tobacco causes Minnesotans.
Funded with 3 percent of the settlement, ClearWay Minnesota has achieved significant milestones during the past decade, including comprehensive cessation services for all Minnesotans, a strong statewide smoke-free law and a nationally respected research program. ClearWay Minnesota remains the only organization of its kind in the country.
A new study from the University of Minnesota Cancer Center and ClearWay Minnesota has found that since the Freedom to Breathe Act went into effect last October, hospitality workers have significantly reduced exposure to a tobacco-specific cancer causing chemical.
The study measured workers exposure to cotinine (a measure of nicotine exposure) and NNAL, a by-product of a potent lung cancer-causing toxin, before and after the law took effect.
The study included nonsmoking employees of bars, restaurants and bowling alleys throughout the state. Each participant submitted urine samples taken before and after the law was enacted, as well as a detailed questionnaire, to the University of Minnesota research team for analysis.
This month, ClearWay Minnesota will celebrate the efforts of Minnesotans who used the free, professional counseling from QUITPLAN® Services to successfully quit smoking with a series of photo exhibits in the State Capitol. The exhibits are on display from Sunday, March 16 - Sunday, March 30 in the North Corridor of State Capitol near the Rotunda.
A new survey released today by ClearWay Minnesota(SM) found that 76 percent of Minnesotans support the statewide smoke-free law, with 44 percent indicating strong support. The survey also provides evidence of strong support among all leading demographics, including geography, political and ideological affiliation, income, age and gender. The survey was conducted by Minneapolis research firm Decision Resources, Ltd.
"The results of this survey demonstrate how quickly the smoke-free law has been embraced by all Minnesotans," said David Willoughby, Chief Executive Officer of ClearWay Minnesota. "We can now add the love of fresh indoor air to the list of things that define us as Minnesotans."
WHERE THE TOBACCO FUNDS ARE BEING SPENT
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota received $469 million in the settlement. This is the company's plan for spending it:
• $241 million for Prevention Minnesota, a program to reduce smoking, increase physical activity and promote healthy eating.
• $71 million goes back to plan members. . . .
ClearWay Minnesota was created by the settlement with a $202 million endowment and a 25-year lifespan. So far, it has spent the money this way:
• $31.6 million for education and outreach, including a statewide advertising campaign on ClearWay's cessation program and the dangers of secondhand smoke.
Ten years later, the state's case against the tobacco industry is widely recognized as the most far-reaching case against private industry in Minnesota history.
The $6.1 billion settlement that came four months after the case began in a similarly bitter January 1998 in St. Paul has since been used to help thousands of Minnesota adults quit smoking, to persuade middle school and high school students to not start smoking, and has helped lay the groundwork for a statewide smoking ban and bailed the state out of a budget deficit.
"When you talk to people, there's a different attitude now about smoking. Smoking is more the exception than the rule," said former Attorney General Hubert Humphrey III, whose office began pursuing the tobacco industry in 1994. "That wouldn't have happened at nearly the pace it did without the settlement." . . .
The multibillion-dollar settlement will even be honored in the state's sesquicentennial celebration as one of the 150 most important people, places and events in Minnesota history. But it has not been without hitches in the 10 years since Humphrey told the tobacco industry that Minnesota was drawing "a line in the snow" to prove the industry's responsibility for causing smoking-related illnesses. . . .
"The whole driving force behind this litigation was public health," said Roberta Walburn, one of the central trial attorneys from the Minneapolis firm Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi that was hired by Humphrey to represent the state. "The settlement would have had a bigger impact if it had been used for public health instead of balancing the budget." . . .
MPAAT, which changed its name last year to ClearWay Minnesota to give it a more positive image, has spent $21.4 million over eight years helping Minnesotans quit smoking. . . .
"The industry has been discredited. The public knows the danger of the product. Would that have eventually come out without the lawsuit? Maybe," Humphrey said. "Smoking is the most preventable disease factor in the world, but we have a long way to go."
On October 1, the Freedom to Breathe Act went into effect making almost all indoor workplaces in Minnesota smoke-free. QUITPLAN Services, the free stop-smoking programs provided by ClearWay Minnesota(SM), prepared for an influx of users around the new law's implementation date -- and the data show an increase.
During the first week of October, ClearWay Minnesota's online cessation program quitplan.com saw a 93 percent increase in registrants compared to the same week in 2006. In addition, several QUITPLAN Centers saw increases in participants during the month of October. QUITPLAN Centers in the Willmar area saw a 42 percent increase in October versus the same period in 2006. QUITPLAN Centers located in the Thief River Falls area doubled their participants in October compared to last year.
Even though much of the Twin Cities Metro Area has been smoke-free since March 2005, two QUITPLAN Centers in Minneapolis also saw a 24 percent increase in participants in October and November combined.
Eleven research grants totaling $2.8 million are being issued in Minnesota to assess the effects of tobacco use and secondhand smoke on young Hispanics and African immigrants.
Some of the grants also are going toward addressing the effects of tobacco use and secondhand smoke in multifamily housing.
The money is being distributed by ClearWay Minnesota, an independent, nonprofit antismoking organization whose funding includes money from the state's 1998 tobacco settlement.
At its Board Meeting on Wednesday, November 14, the Board of Directors of ClearWay Minnesota approved 11 grants for new research on topics ranging from the Freedom to Breathe Act's impact on young adults to interventions that reduce tobacco use and secondhand smoke exposure among Chicano Latino youth and African immigrants. ClearWay Minnesota will award more than $2.8 million to Minnesota researchers through these grants, which bring ClearWay Minnesota's total expenditures on competitive research grants to more than $14.5 million since 1998. "These new grant awards show our continuing commitment to innovative research that shapes our work to reduce tobacco's harm," said David Willoughby, ClearWay Minnesota's Chief Executive Officer. "This significant investment in research will pay healthy dividends for Minnesotans well into the future."
Call it Quits -- a newly named collaboration among Minnesota's major health plans and ClearWay Minnesota(SM) -- is launching a new program that makes it easier for physicians and other healthcare providers to help their patients who want to stop smoking. The Minnesota Clinic Fax Referral Program begins October 1, just in time for the start of the statewide smoke-free law which also takes effect that day. This new program will allow clinics across the state to more easily refer a patient to stop-smoking phone coaching support, regardless of the patient's health care coverage.
Call it Quits includes Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota (Blue Cross), ClearWay Minnesota(SM), HealthPartners, Medica, Metropolitan Health Plan, MMSI, Preferred One, and UCare. The group represents all the tobacco quitlines in the state that offer phone coaching to smokers who are trying to quit.
-- Today marks the beginning of a new marketing campaign designed to educate and excite Minnesotans about the Freedom to Breathe Act, the statewide smoke-free law that goes into effect on October 1. The new law will make all indoor workplaces smoke-free, including bars, restaurants and private clubs. Called Fresh Air, the multimedia campaign is sponsored by ClearWay Minnesota(SM). The majority of the campaign will run from September 10 through mid-November. Viewers will be introduced to the Fresh Air campaign through a new television ad that celebrates Minnesotans' love of the outdoors and the benefit of bringing fresh air indoors.
As Minnesota prepares to go smoke-free, three Minnesotans who personally struggled to go smoke-free are sharing their stories, from the time they started smoking to their state of physical and emotional well-being today. Their inspiring stories will be showcased in ClearWay Minnesota's new traveling photo essay exhibit debuting June 27 at the IDS Crystal Court in Minneapolis. The exhibit celebrates the efforts of Minnesotans who used QUITPLAN(R) Services, ClearWay Minnesota's free, professional stop-smoking programs that have helped 10,674 Minnesotans quit and helped saved Minnesotans $24.3 million in health care costs(1).
According to reports filed with the campaign board, spending by interests with a heavy Capitol presence included:
-Anti-smoking forces who shepherded through a bill banning smoking in bars and restaurants. ClearWay Minnesota sunk $122,902 into an effort helped along by the American Cancer Society and Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Minnesota, which spent $96,351 and $81,890 respectively.
On Thursday, May 31, ClearWay Minnesota(SM) will celebrate World No Tobacco Day with a QUITPLAN Services booth at a Mall of America event. The event will also feature a kids coloring contest, appearances by the Minnesota Thunder soccer team and prizes, information and booths from the American Lung Association and Pfizer. In addition, guests can register to win a $100 gift card from Mall of America by throwing away their pack of cigarettes in the Rotunda. Sponsored by Mall of America, the World No Tobacco Day event will be held from 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. in the Mall of America Rotunda.