Legislators, health officials look at tobacco use

Submitted by the North Georgia Health District

A Building Partnerships for Better Health forum was held at the Whitfield County Health Department recently. Health officials shared with state legislators Don Thomas, Tom Dickson and Roger Williams the Assessment of Disparities with Tobacco Use.

The East Tennessee State University College of Public Health and the Building Partnerships for Better Health initiative conducted the assessment. ETSU research assistant Rachel Swafford said the report was part of efforts to gather data for the Tennessee Stroke Registry. Swafford attended the meeting on behalf of Tim Aldrich and Varaprasaad Ilapogu, the authors of the study.

Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death and disease in Georgia and the nation, and there is a clear connection between tobacco use and chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease, a major cause of stroke. Other chronic diseases related to tobacco use include cancer (lung, cervix, kidney and bone marrow), respiratory diseases, osteoporosis and poor pregnancy outcomes.

Building Partnerships for Better Health is a regional public health initiative established to address tobacco-related disparities in North Georgia. The assessment revealed that the population in this area uses tobacco at higher rates than do other populations in Georgia. It was also found that tobacco users in North Georgia have used the services of the free Georgia Tobacco Quit Line (1-877-270-STOP, 1-877-2NO-FUME) at lower rates than in other parts of the state.

Ramona Bennett, a tobacco treatment specialist and a consultant for the North Georgia Health District, said the higher tobacco use in Dalton may be partly due to statewide Quit Line media campaigns that did not include advertisements outside the state even though North Georgia is also served by Chattanooga, Tenn., media.

“Research has shown that in other regions of the state such as in metro Atlanta where the media market is very saturated, the percentages of calls into the Quit Line are markedly higher following the statewide campaigns,” said Bennett. “It’s obvious there is a direct correlation between how well the message is broadcasted and the response.”

Thomas, a practicing physician who was re-appointed this week as chairman of the Health and Human Services Committee in the Senate, said he favors raising the state’s tobacco tax.

“This type of increase would not only encourage adults to quit using tobacco,” said Thomas, “but such an expense would also effectively serve as discouragement to kids to start the habit.”

The legislators encouraged the participants to bring community concerns directly to them and to continue providing similar opportunities for such forums.

For more information regarding the Assessment of Disparities with Tobacco Use or the forum, please contact Jennifer Moorer at (706) 280-9115 or e-mail jamoorer@dhr.state.ga.us.

(The Assessment of Disparities with Tobacco Use report can be found under Health on the Web site.)