Tobacco Documents Online

Twenty-one national organizations are sponsoring an all-working Conference on'Smoking Or Health at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City, November 18-20, 1981. The conference is by invitation only. Partici- pants were selected from among recognized experts and leaders in ten priority smoking control issue areas. The participants will redefine smoking control problems and current programs. They will then develop a concrete plan for action in the fight against smoking. This "blueprint for action " will be designed for "maximum impact and efficiency," according to conference planning conunittee chairman, Dr. Charles. A. LeMaistre, President of Houston's M.D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute. The American Cancer Society initiated the planning of the conference and has assumed overall management responsibilities for the action-oriented meeting. Richard S. Schweiker, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services will give the keynote speech when he-opens the conference on Wednesday, November 18. This will be followed by two full days of work group discussion to conclude by noon on Friday. Each work group is expected to develop a specific plan to further smoking control in its assigned area. -more-

I -'- The "blueprint for action" will be a composite of the ten group reports. "Prevention of Smoking Through Comprehensive School Health Education," is the work group led by Marshall W. Kreuter, Ph.D. from the College of Health in Salt Lake City, Utah. The issue of school health education is of critical importance for smoking control because it is felt that nreventing the onset of smoking is preferable to attempting to convert an established smoker. The "high-risk" concept in smoking control will be dis- cussed in a group led by Dr. Lester Breslow of the UCLA School of Public Health. This concept deals with the problems of limited resources and increasing demands for cost-effeciency in smoking control programs. This situation dictates that the greatest efforts to control smoking benefit those who need it most. . Work group three, led by Donald Welch, President of the Adventist Hospital System in Orlando, Florida, will discuss the role of hospitals in reducing smoking. The concern in this group is for both patient and non-patient health education as well as opportunities to reach the significant numbers of hospital-associ- ated health professionals. Employers are felt to be a major.inf.luence on the smoking habits of individual employees through: company policies on smoking, availability of cigarettes on the worksite, direct incentive pro- grams.for non-smokers, smoking-cessation programs and provision of information and education about the consequences of smoking. Robert Beck, Director of Benefits and Personnel Services, IBM Corporation, will lead the work group on "Smoking Control in the -more -

3 Workplace." Groups 5 and 6 are concerned with governmental initia- tives on the federal and regional levels. Dr. Phillip Lee, University of California, San Francis,co, and Dr. Douglas Lloyd, Connecticut's Commissioner of the Department of Health Services each will lead a work,group. Research aimed at understanding smoking behavior is considered to be of critical importance in furthering smoking control. It is hoped that this behavior modification research, still in its infancy, will provide new information to help construct more effective control programs. Former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jesse L. Steinfeld will lead the discussion on "Tobacco-Related Research: New Opportunities, New Administrative Mechani sms . " Group 8, led by three media experts is called, "Counter- ing Cigarette Advertising and Supporting the Rights of Nonsmokers Through the Media." Current "self-help" programs will be analyzed in a work group called "Tlotivating Smokers to Assume Personal Responsibility for Quitting on Their Own," and will be led by Glenn H. Hughes, Ph.D., Director of Intervention, University of Alabama. .For the past 14 years, the U.S. Public Health Service and the major health-agencies have taken the position that for those smokers who cannot quit, smoking lower tar and nicotine cigarettes holds the potential for reduced risk. The 1981 Surgeon General's Report points out that the evidence for reduced risk relates only to lung cancer. Group 10, "Future Strategies for the Changing -more-

-4- Cigarette," led by epidemiologist Dr. Warren Winkelstein, Jr. of the University of California at Berkeley,will deal with the many issues surrounding the development and use of low-tar/nicotine cigarettes. In addition to the American Cancer Society, the following other organizations are co-sponsors: American Association of Occupational Health Nurses, Inc., American College of Chest Physicians, American Dental Association, American Heart Association, American Hospital Association, American Lung Association, American Nurses' Association, Inc., American Occupational Medical Association, American Public Health Association, American School Health Associa- tion, International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Asbestos Workers, March of Dimes, National Interagency Council on Smoking and Health, National Congress of Parents and Teachers, National Education Association, Society for Public Health Educa- tion, Inc., The American Association for Thoracic Surgery, U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Depart- ment of Health and Human Services(Office on Smoking and Health, Public Health Service). ###############