CASE in Action - 2006

December 2006

• The Columbia/Boone County Health Department received funding from the Missouri Foundation for Health for the implementation of its smoking cessation program (see CASE activities in June-July 2006)

November 2006

• PASS was recognized as the number one tobacco prevention program in the country at the annual conference of the BACCHUS and GAMMA Peer Education Network. For more details, click here.
• Findings from CASE's survey of Columbia residents (see CASE activities in June-July 2006) were published in the November/December issue of the journal Missouri Medicine.

October 2006

• CASE's efforts to increase support for a smoke-free ordinance and research findings from its surveys triggered media coverage by local affiliates of ABC, CBS and NBC, front page stories in both local newspapers, the Columbia Daily Tribune and the Columbia Missourian, coverage in UMC's student newspaper and radio interviews for stations The Eagle, KOPN and others.
• SAFE co-chair Dean Andersen wrote an editorial [click to read editorial] for the Columbia Daily Tribune in support of the proposed smoke-free ordinance in Columbia.
• The Columbia City Council voted to ban smoking in all enclosed public and work places. That includes bars, restaurants, bingo and bowling places, educational facilities, office buildings and others. The activities of PASS, SAFE, and CASE contributed strongly to this decision through networking, community education and outreach, and direct education of city decision makers.
• CASE sent the findings from its survey of UMC students and faculty (see CASE activities in April 2006) to co-leaders of the Campus Tobacco Policy Task Force.

September 2006

• PASS developed poster campaigns and presented information at the Campus Tobacco Policy Task Force forums.
• SAFE developed radio advertisements and held educational meetings with each city council member.
• CASE released its website (casemo.org) live.

August 2006

• CASE joined the Breathe Easy coalition in Kirksville in an effort to propose a smoke-free ordinance to the City Council and participates in a town hall meeting on the subject.
• PASS participated in UMC Student Leadership Training where students learned about the implications of secondhand smoke and the techniques the tobacco industry uses to glorify smoking.
• PASS cleaned up smoking huts outside University Hospitals and Clinics (click on images below for larger version).

July-June 2006

• CASE worked with the Columbia/Boone County Health Department on a grant proposal to the Missouri Foundation for Health for a local smoking cessation and education program among various groups of employees. MFH is the largest health care foundation in the state and it also funds CASE's activities.
• CASE conducted a community tobacco opinions survey with 701 local residents. The survey found that more than 80 percent of Columbians would visit restaurants and bars at the same rate or more if they were smoke-free. Also, almost 90 percent of surveyed Columbians prefered a smoke-free workplace.
• SAFE participated in the annual Twilight Festival, which takes place every Thursday of June in downtown Columbia and hosts various local artists, vendors, community organizations, etc. SAFE conducted educational tabling - they put up a table with information and answered questions about Columbia being smoke free.

May 2006

• CASE participated in a town hall meeting on secondhand smoke in Columbia, which discussed the pros and cons of passing an antismoking ordinance in the city (click images below to see larger versions).

April 2006

• SAFE made a presentation to the Columbia Area Chamber of Commerce about the proposed smoke free ordinance and debated the proposal with the Boone Liberty Coalition, which is against it.
• SAFE and PASS developed and distributed educational materials about the danger of secondhand smoke to bars and restaurants in Columbia. The goal was to raise awareness among owners and employees about the benefits of smoke-free environments and to increase support for restaurants and bars without secondhand smoke.
• PASS organized a pizza-and-a-movie gathering on campus which showed the movie "Thank you for Smoking." The movie is a satire about Big Tobacco and its attempts to promote cigarettes as safe.
• CASE conducted a tobacco opinions survey of 1,020 students and 1,331 faculty and staff on the MU-Columbia campus. The survey found that:

• a) 74% of students and 77% of faculty/staff support a campus policy which allows no smoking anyplace indoors and no smoking in specified outdoor areas on campus property.
• b) 56% of students and 41% of faculty/staff support a policy that would allow smoking at all outside areas on campus and no smoking anyplace indoors
• c) 49% of students and 46% of faculty/staff are for a smoke-free campus, which means that no smoking will be allowed anyplace indoors or outdoors on campus property.
• d) 15% of students and 16% of faculty/staff support a policy that would allow smoking at designated indoor areas and all outside areas on campus
• e) 4% of students and 3% of faculty/staff would support a policy that allows smoking anywhere indoors or outdoors on campus

CASE formed a cessation partnership with UMC Student Health Center to provide free nicotine replacement therapy to students who want to quit and to join smoking cessation counseling.

CASE made a presentation at the first meeting of the Campus Tobacco Policy Task Force. The task force's role is to examine the UMC smoking policy. It will make a recommendation to the vice chancellor for administrative services, who in turn will make a recommendation to Chancellor Brady Deaton, who would have the final decision on a future smoking policy.

March 2006

• PASS Vice President Domingo Pacheco wrote a letter to the editor [click to read letter] in the Columbia Daily Tribune about secondhand smoke. Secondhand smoke is a public health issue because it kills an estimated 1,200 Missourians a year, Pacheco wrote. The tobacco industry insists that smoking ordinances are bad for local businesses but independent studies show either a neutral or a positive effect of such bans on business, he said.

February 2006

• PASS organized a Kiss Me campaign. They distributed educational materials, chocolate kisses and 400 T-shirts with the logo "Kiss me - I'm a nonsmoker (88% of Mizzou students prefer to kiss a nonsmoker)" on the MU-Columbia campus.
• SAFE distributed educational notebooks to the Columbia Board of Health, which provided information on the proposed smoke free ordinance, benefits of going smoke free, rationale for adopting smoke free ordinance, benefits to employees, etc.