Whether you live in a city where smog forecasts are routine or in a less populated place, tiny pollution particles in the air can lead to big problems for your heart.
Pollution can come from traffic, factories, power generation, wildfires or even cooking with a wood stove. One of the most common indoor sources is smoking — a danger to the person lighting up and to those nearby.   LEARN MORE about the effects, risks, and precautions that can help heart patients and others.

Did you know that an astonishing 21% of West Virginia’s high school students are already smoking and an additional 2,600 become new smokers each year? Our kids deserve better! 

We know that every 10% increase in the price of cigarettes decreases smoking among our price-sensitive youth by about 7%. It also encourages adult smokers to quit, reducing adult smoking rates by about 4%. West Virginia’s current cigarette tax is 55 cents per pack, 44th in the nation and well below the national average of $1.49 per pack.

We lose nearly 4,000 West Virginians prematurely each year from tobacco use, the most preventable cause of death. That's 4,000 too many.

In addition, tobacco use costs West Virginia more than lives--approximately $2 billion annually from both direct healthcare costs and lost productivity.

It’s time to get serious about preventing today’s kids from becoming tomorrow’s addicted smokers.  Urge your lawmakers to support an increase in West Virginia’s tobacco tax in the next session! 

On May 1st, the American Lung Association, American Heart Association, Pennsylvania Alliance to Control Tobacco, and statewide health advocates made a stand for comprehensive clean indoor air for all workers in Pennsylvania. The cry “No More Exemptions” was heard by lawmakers at the State Capitol.



Pennsylvania enacted a Clean Indoor Air law in 2008, but as beneficial as that law was, it was not perfect. That law has several exemptions that allow workers and patrons at thousands of Pennsylvania businesses to be exposed to secondhand smoke. These business exemptions include:

• Bars, with 20 percent or less revenue from food sales
• Casinos (up to 50 percent of the gaming floor)
• Private Clubs
• Tobacco Shops
• Cigar Bars
• Truck stops with shower facilities

Comprehensive clean indoor air legislation would prohibit smoking in all indoor workplaces and public places, with no exemptions. A comprehensive clean indoor air law would protect all workers and the public from the harmful pollutants, including carcinogens, of secondhand smoke exposure and would provide a level playing field for all businesses across the Commonwealth.

On March 21st, youth around the country gathered for Kick Butts Day events.  They advocated for various policy changes to protect kids from the tobacco industry.  In Ohio, they told legislators Ohio is number 50!

On Mar. 15, 2012 American Heart Association CEO Nancy Brown issued the following comments on the new National Tobacco Education Campaign, unveiled today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):

“The CDC’s new tobacco education campaign could not come at a better time. The painfully real accounts of former smokers featured in these ads will focus public attention on the devastating health effects of tobacco use, encourage current smokers to quit and help strongly combat the tobacco industry’s efforts to foster a new generation of addicts.

About one-third of smoking-related deaths in the United States are linked to cardiovascular disease. The stories of two Americans included in this campaign, who suffered from a heart attack and a stroke as a result of smoking, are harrowing examples of how tobacco can ruin an individual’s health. The ads highlight a shocking but very realistic fate that could await some current smokers if they continue their tobacco addiction. As the ads emphasize, smoking contributes to 1 in 5 strokes, and your chances of having a heart attack increase every time you light up.

The Surgeon General’s report released last week points to strong evidence that tobacco-education media campaigns can help reduce the number of smokers in this country. The American Heart Association believes these graphic ads, coupled with vigorous tobacco control at the state level, will reach not only the adults who smoke, but also will break through to teens and discourage them from ever taking up this deadly habit.”

Visit the CDC website or click the video below to see these compelling ads for yourself!

It may have been a cold day in January, but advocates from around the state came to Columbus in a tobacco prevention and cessation strategic summit.

The morning was spent reviewing the current state of tobacco prevention.  Unfortunately, Ohio is ranked #50, as in last in the country, for tobacco prevention funding according to a recent report by the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids.  In addition, Ohio is experiencing an increase in our adult smoking rates due to the lack of funding.

The day also marked the American Lung Association's release of the State of Tobacco Control.  Their report didn't give Ohio high marks.

However, this didn't deter participants.  They spent the afternoon brainstorming and developing personal action plans.  While Ohio has experienced significant challenges, advocates remain strong and pledge to see tobacco prevention and cessation funding restored in the state.

• Convenience stores and other retail outlets have become by far the dominant channel for marketing tobacco products in the United States.
• Point-of-sale marketing is very effective at reaching kids and influencing them to smoke.
• Tobacco companies, inhibited by their own negative reputations, have enlisted convenience stores as front groups to oppose tobacco tax increases and other policies to reduce tobacco use.

Secondhand smoke is a known cause of lung cancer, heart disease, chronic lung ailments such as bronchitis and asthma (particularly in children), and low birth-weight births.


Over 38,000 people die every years in the United States and over one million illnesses in children are caused by secondhand smoke - every year! Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids


Provide a level playing field for all businesses across the Commonwealth (No Exemptions!)  Clean Indoor Air legislation does not have a negative impact on businesses – in some cases, businesses grow.


There is a dedicated Comprehensive Clean Indoor Air Facebook page for Pennsylvania!  Everyone in Pennsylvania deserves clean indoor air.  No more clean indoor air exemptions!  


Please “like” the Clean Indoor Air for All Pennsylvanians Facebook page and share your thoughts and ideas.  

Levels of secondhand smoke exposure among nonsmoking English adults declined significantly after smoke-free laws went into effect, according to a new U.K. study.

Exposure to secondhand smoke, as measured by the percentage of the population with undetectable salivary cotinine, declined from 1998 to 2008. The percentage of the population who had undetectable cotinine was 2.9 times higher and the geometric mean cotinine declined by 80 percent over the term, Michelle Sims, Ph.D., from the UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies at the University of Bath, and colleagues found.

After the implementation of the legislation, there was also a significant fall in exposure, they reported in Environmental Health Perspectives.

The Orange Bowl Committee canceled a partnership agreement to promote Camacho Cigars at the Discover Orange Bowl. The agreement would have extended through 2014.

A coalition of nine health organizations, including the American Heart Association, expressed disappointment over the agreement in a Dec. 20 letter to the committee.

"This blatant promotion of cigars at a high-profile sporting event continues the tobacco industry's decades-long practice of using sports and entertainment sponsorships to promote tobacco products, especially to youth," the groups wrote.

Click here for more information.

Maine and North Dakota are the two most quit-friendly states for smokers who want to stop smoking; Georgia and Louisiana are the two least quit-friendly states according to the American Lung Association’s annual “Helping Smokers Quit: Tobacco Cessation Coverage 2011” report. The new report documents the coverage of quit smoking programs and treatments available in each state and from the federal government.

The report identifies the five most quit-friendly states as Maine, North Dakota, Delaware, Oklahoma, and Wyoming. The report identifies the five least quit-friendly states, where policymakers are tragically missing a chance to improve citizens’ health and save lives, as Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama, Maryland, and New Jersey.

Less Than Two Cents of Every Tobacco Dollar Spent to Fight Tobacco Use

States have slashed funding for programs to reduce tobacco use by 12 percent in the past year and by 36 percent over the past four years, threatening the nation’s progress against tobacco, according to a report released recently by a coalition of public health organizations including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The states this year will collect $25.6 billion in revenue from the 1998 state tobacco settlement and tobacco taxes, but will spend only 1.8 percent of it—$456.7 million—on programs to prevent kids from smoking and help smokers quit. This means the states are spending less than two cents of every dollar in tobacco revenue to fight tobacco use. Both the total amounts states are spending on tobacco prevention programs and the percentage of tobacco revenue spent on these programs are the lowest since 1999, when the states first received tobacco settlement funds.

The report, titled “A Broken Promise to Our Children: The 1998 State Tobacco Settlement 13 Years Later,” comes as recent surveys have found that smoking declines in the United States have slowed. With nearly 20 percent of Americans still smoking, it warns that continued progress against tobacco use—the nation’s number one cause of preventable death—is at risk unless states increase funding for tobacco prevention and cessation programs.

• Read the news release.

• Read the full report.

• Check out a NewPublicHealth interview with Danny McGoldrick, vice president for research at the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids.

November is National Family Caregiver’s Month and every day more than 65 million Americans perform the challenging jobs of caring for a sick or disabled family member.

Remind the caregivers in your life to take care of themselves, too! 

As a caregiver, make sure to get professional help and follow doctors' orders for your mental and physical health. Keep your energy level up and reduce your risks by eating a healthy diet, getting regular physical activity and avoiding tobacco.

To do the best for your loved one, you must be in the best possible health yourself.

AHA Caregiver Resources