FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Bret Stanfield
(334) 206-5030
The Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) Youth Tobacco Prevention Program is requesting applications for a funding opportunity for the upcoming fiscal year. The $1 million program works to restrict youth access to tobacco products and Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS), or e-cigarettes, as well as protect Alabama’s youth from the tobacco industry’s marketing practices.
Tobacco use is the single most preventable cause of death and disease in the United States today. According to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, approximately 4,100 children in Alabama become new daily smokers each year while 108,000 Alabama children under 18 years of age will ultimately die prematurely from smoking.
“Alabama’s youth are being targeted by the tobacco industry as ‘replacement smokers,’” said ADPH Youth Tobacco Prevention Coordinator Bret Stanfield. “A 1984 report from the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company stated that as current tobacco users quit or fall victim to the disease and death brought on by tobacco use, the industry looks to young people as the new generation of customers. You can find these types of reports from the tobacco industry that are decades old that recognize youth in America as a crucial market. This is still going on today.”
Stanfield also pointed to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2014 stating that ENDS use among high school students had more than tripled from 2013 to 2014.
“Right now in Alabama, nearly a quarter of high school students are regular ENDS users,” said Stanfield. “This is a trend that we are watching very closely as these products can promote nicotine dependency in youth."
The ADPH Youth Tobacco Prevention Program works with organizations around the state to foster community environments that protect middle and high school-aged children from exposure to tobacco products at the point-of-sale, the tobacco industry’s marketing tactics, and environmental secondhand smoke.
Organizations wishing to apply for funding for this grant should notify ADPH of their intent before close of business on Friday, August 26. The grant period will begin October 1, 2016, and runs until September 30, 2017.
Notices of intent to apply can be emailed to [email protected].