A new post in our series “Tobacco & Twenty-somethings”, by Stacy Song
Reality television is my guiltiest pleasure. I know it probably lowers my IQ a few notches, but for some reason I just cannot get enough of it. Over the weekend, I decided to catch up on the newest season of The Real World. In one of the episodes, there was a debate between two characters over whether smoking a cigarette is more dangerous than smoking a hookah. This argument starts when one of the cast members confidently says that smoking hookah is the equivalent to 1/77th of a cigarette. Obviously, this fact sounds flawed so another cast member decides to google some information. Most viewers just see this as a menial argument, however, it brings up a good point. After this episode, I decided to look up some facts for myself. Read More »
Guest Blogger – Serena Chen, American Lung Association in California
Debi Austin was a force to be reckoned with. When her anti-tobacco industry commercial hit the air waves in 1996, we saw a woman who was getting back at the industry that had hooked her into smoking at age 13 – by defiantly smoking a cigarette through the hole in her throat. A hole, a stoma, created when doctors removed her cancerous vocal cord, that was brought to her courtesy of RJ Reynolds and Camel cigarettes. She takes a puff, and then growls, “And they say smoking is not addictive.”
During one of her numerous presentations to high school kids, she remarked, “I am the worst-case scenario that your mother told you about,” she said. “I am the walking dead, the castoff of the tobacco industry that they can’t fix, they can’t heal.”
Debi Austin was scary, and we, tobacco control advocates, loved her. She reached the kids who wouldn’t listen to us, she touched the most hardcore addicted smokers, and she told the kind of truth that only a survivor can tell.
In 2000, the Alameda County Tobacco Control Coalition invited her to speak at one of our coalition meetings and it was the beginning of a beautiful friendship, maybe even love affair. The Bay Area school districts all clamored to have her speak to their students and Debi simply loved “hanging out,” with the advocates afterwards over dinner where she would tell what we fondly call “Debi stories.” Stories of her childhood and wayward youth. She would drive up to Oakland for our regular quarterly meetings even if she wasn’t speaking. Read More »
There has been lots of interesting dialogue in the world of smokefree housing this month at both the local and state level. Earlier this month County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky posted blog about the great work happening in Los Angeles County around smokefree multiunit housing and Monday the Contra Costa Times posted an article about a perspective Walnut Creek secondhand smoke ordinance that would prohibit smoking in indoor and outdoor common areas. And in state news, just last week Assembly Member Marc Levine introduced AB 746 which would prohibit smoking in all multiunit housing in California. We know that secondhand smoke is more than a nuisance, in fact there are some huge health impacts when it comes to drifting secondhand smoke; heart disease, asthma, lung cancer and stroke just to name a few. Read More »
It’s one week until District Days and today we roll out the third post in our “What’s Your Number?” series. This week we hear from Monty Messex from Los Angeles County. Click here to check out the post from week one and click here for the post from week two.
What’s your number? That was the theme of I&E Days this year.
Ugh, I thought to myself, is this really going to work. We’re going to cram into a small Capitol office with an overwhelmed legislator or their just-hired staffer and share a personal story about a number! Really? REALLY!
But, hey I’m a team player, so I came up with a number. Read More »
Last week we rolled out the first post in our District Days blog series “What’s Your Number?” and heard from Nicole Coxe who shared her number, 30, in a post titled “A number that reflects more than just one story.” This week we hear from Bill Hall from Modoc County and his number, 33.
“What is your number” has been the theme this year. While some numbers are statistics others are of a more personal nature. I struggled to find my number. I shared the project with my own mother. She in turn shared it with her mother, my grandmother. Read More »
