Every Cigarette Not Smoked Helps the World. Help The Numbers Grow.
664,324 Cigarettes NOT Smoked. 33,216 Packs NOT purchased. 664,324 Cigarette butts NOT in the environment. $332,162 Saved. A lot of tar NOT in human lungs (I'm working to
find a formula to calculate this accurately), 2214 trees not logged.
Since January 2008 my 'Tobacco Fighters and Survivors Club' group has been keeping a self reported, weekly tally of the numbers above, which allow clients to tally and celebrate every small success -
even BEFORE quitting smoking completely.
If one nurse can help to impact that much change, think about what all nurses, all over the world, could do if we put our minds, hearts and souls to it. It helps to understand why the tobacco
industry has said that nurses would be a "formidable foe" if we ever organized against them. Their only role is to make money, and our only way to impact them is on THEIR battlefield - which is the
world of money.
Quitting smoking is a process, not necessarily an event, so celebrating every small success along the way and treating relapses as learning experiences rather than as failures is very helpful -
essential in fact.
Our foe, the tobacco industry, is itself formidable, and practice, preparation, and new ways of thinking are necessary to effectively fight it.
I encourage every health care professional and every health care setting in the world to join me in keeping these success stats. Posting them in your facility will encourage others to join the
battle to end the tobacco industry's unhealthy impact on human beings.
WHETHER YOU ARE A SMOKER OR A HEALTH CARE PROVIDER, PLEASE COMMEMT ON A POST OR EMAIL ME YOUR NUMBERS SO THEY CAN INCREASE EVERY DAY!!! info@outsmarttobacco.org
I AM A MEMBER OF THE NIGHTINGALES NURSES, a U.S. based international organization whose goal is to help nurses everywhere live up to the "FORMIDABLE FOE" image and role. One practice of Nightingales
Nurses is to attend tobacco industry annual shareholder's meetings, where we speak up for public health by reporting the impacts of tobacco on our patients and clients and their families. As nurses
we witness daily the impact (via early death preceeded by long term suffering -physical, psychological, financial, sociological) of an industry that seems quite happy to rake in obscene amounts of
money by being the indisputable and deliberate vector of a deadly and increasing worldwide pandemic. LETS GO FOR IT AND SHOW Big Tobacco WHAT FORMIDABLE REALLY LOOKS LIKE!!! I plan to report my (and
your) 'Cigarettes Not Smoked Stats' in tobacco industry shareholder's meetings because the industry concerns at these meetings are confined to money. Cigarettes not smoked represent money lost to
them, and I take satisfaction in every dollar not given to such anti-social human beings. I will also share all nursing generated numbers with our RN2Q1 Campaign, whose goal is to encourage every
nurse to help at least one person per year quit smoking.
We need to educate first ourselves and then our clients so that big tobacco can no longer outsmart anyone - anywhere. We are all citizens of the world, and none of us deserve to die slow early
deaths from tobacco related illnesses, while making the tobacco industry richer.
PLEASE, no matter who you are or where you are, HELP yourself and others by emailing me YOUR numbers of cigarettes not smoked. Besides the numbers, which I want to keep track of no matter what, I
want to know whether or not health care professionals are helping people in the quit smoking process, so let me know whether or not you have received any help or encouragement from your health care
providers, and I will add that information to the tally as well, and honor the professionals who are not afraid to intervene and help smoking clients quit.
IF YOU ARE A HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONAL please let me know whenever you intervene to help people break their tobacco addictions. Just asking people whether they smoke, and letting them know that
quitting smoking is the best possible health decision any smoker could make, is a powerful intervention. I want to provide useful resources on this blog, so visit it often and refer your clients here
as well.
A lot of manipulation by the tobacco industry has been going on in California lately. The election on June 5th includes a vote on Proposisiton 29. A YES vote on this measure means: State excise taxes on cigarettes would increase by $1 per pack to a total of $1.87 per pack. These additional revenues would be dedicated to fund cancer and tobacco-related disease research and tobacco prevention and cessation programs. The American Cancer Society, American Heart Association and American Lung Association wrote Prop. 29 to save lives, stop kids from smoking, and fund cancer research. Big Tobacco opposes Prop. 29 because they know it will reduce smoking in California. Prop. 29 saves lives.
In this satirical video, a group of Californians explain why they’re in favor of Big Tobacco. Chris Lehman, campaign manager for the effort, considers the YouTube video an effective way to fight the financial behemoth that is the tobacco lobby.
“Let’s be clear: we can’t match Big Tobacco, which has contributed more than $40 million to the
opposition,” said Lehman. “But what we can do is rely on thousands of smart Californians who see through Big Tobacco’s smokescreen and will help spread our messages online.”
Tobacco industry interference is this year’s theme for the World Health Organization (WHO) World No Tobacco Day, which takes place 31 May 2012. World No Tobacco Day is also my birthday, a fact that gave me goosebumps when I first learned it several years ago.
The day will focus on the need to expose and counter the tobacco industry's brazen and increasingly aggressive attempts to undermine the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC). Check out resources to help support the cause at the link below.
Forget Tobacco is running weekly contests until the end of May for free tickets to next year's One Direction shows. Check out Forget Tobacco here. http://forgettobacco.com/
This is the first video to win tickets from Forget Tobacco to a 2013 One Direction concert!!! There will be a contest winner every week in May. Congratulations Michelle and Jessah, Canadian girls from Toronto. Way to go!!!!Lovely voice Michelle. If you're a young person interested in winning some tickets by making your own Forget Tobacco video or in learning about the tobacco industry check out www.forgettobacco.com
Chad Bullock, founder of 'Forget Tobacco' grew up in North Carolina (a tobacco state) and got involved with local tobacco groups. He started Forget Tobacco (formerly helloCHANGE) in 2008 after becoming the only non-celeb to win a Teen Choice Award and $100,000 from DoSomething.org for his tobacco control efforts.
It is great to see young anti-tobacco activists ensuring a better world for all of us by helping other young people see and avoid the deviousness of the tobacco industry. If we can deprive the industry of new kid customers (and we can, with the right kind of education) the industry will not be able to survive.
When the Montreal Class Action trials against the Canadian operations of the world’s largest tobacco companies began in March it was in the news everywhere, and I watched and read about it with great interest. The class actions are against the Canadian operations of the world’s largest tobacco companies: Rothmans Benson and Hedges (wholly owned by Philip Morris International), Imperial Tobacco Ltd. (wholly owned by British American Tobacco) and JTI-Macdonald (wholly owned by Japan Tobacco). The parent companies have not been named in these Quebec actions (although they are included in some other Canadian suits).
By the time the trial was a few days underway my frequent google news searches yielded nothing new, which was a frustrating disappointment.
Imagine how happy I was, therefore, to discover a blog called 'Eye on the Trials - An Information Service on Tobacco Litigation.' Here Cynthia Callard, of Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada, or Michael DeRosenroll, of the Canadian Cancer Society, who has subbed for her, have posted blog posts detailing the events of every single day and detail of the trial - including links to exhibits!
I am fascinated by the history of the tobacco industry and how it came to be so deeply normalized and embedded into our private, social, legal, medical,financial, political, public relations worlds. These blog posts and exhibits shine a bright, much appreciated light - helping us see what the industry knew, when they knew it, and how they have responded. Of course it is not a pretty picture, but it is one we should understand and learn from - particularly if we work in the healthcare field.
Thanks to Cynthia and Michael and to the organizations that support them in this valuable service. Here is the link. If it isn't clickable please copy and paste.
I am a Registered Nurse from Canada who is CAMH TEACH Certified. I am also a Mayo Clinic Certified Tobacco Treatment Specialist. I run a Smoking Reduction and Cessation group that I have recently
renamed "Tobacco Fighters and Survivors Club."
In order to help people deal with their tobacco addictions I have had to learn a lot about the tobacco industry and its past and present history. It's not a pretty picture.
I plan to use this blog to help enlighten others about tobacco in our world in hopes that the truth will set us free. I will be linking to the many youtube videos I've collected over the years as
well. Please click on topics of interest in the category archive or enter topic of interest in the search box.
I also want to honor the heroes who, in spite of huge opposition over the years, have shown integrity and defended public health.
Please see my very first blog post, from November 19, 2010 (click on 2010 in the monthly archives section below or do a general search for 'just say no to big tobacco co') to read a more thorough
explanation of my decision to start this blog.
