May 2015 Volume 4, Issue 5

A Closer Lo k Inside This Issue:

Two Local Businesses Adopt Tobacco-Free Policies! 1

Ulster County Established a To-

bacco Retail License and Reducing

Youth Exposure to Tobacco Law 1

Smoking in Top-Grossing US

Movies 2014 2

Reality Check Youth Participate in

Cigarette Butt Pick-Up in Honor

or Earth Day 2

Community Training in Recogni-tion of World No Tobacco Day: Does Big Tobacco Target Our Youth? 3

Tobacco is the Leading Cause

of Preventable Death 3

* Contact STTAC and get FREE

signage for your worksite when

you develop a new tobacco-free

grounds or entryway policy for

your business, while supplies last!

a healthy bottom line

STTAC Staff:

Stacy Hills, MS, MCHES STTAC Director shills@co.chemung.ny.us

Sarah Robbins, BS

Reality Check Coordinator

sarahrobbins@co.chemung.ny.us

Teresa Matterazzo, MS

Community Engagement Coordinator

tmatterazzo@co.chemung.ny.us

Two Local Businesses Adopt Tobacco-Free Policies!

During the moth of April two local businesses adopted Tobacco-Free Outdoor (TFO) polices to protect staff and patrons.

The first was Twin Tiers Eye Care, who adopt-ed a policy for all 6 of their locations which are spread out among 4 counties: Broome, Chemung, Schuyler, and Steuben. This policy states, “Outdoor smoking is prohibited within 10 feet of all building openings including door-ways, air or ventilation intake systems, entry-ways, and operable windows. Smoking is also prohibited within 10 feet of any outdoor work area.” After the new policy was signed, STTAC was able to provide free signs to assist compliance.

The second to adopt a new TFO policy was the Humane Society of Schuyler County, which recently opened a brand new facility in Montour Falls. Their policy states, “Outdoor smoking is prohibited within 50 feet of all building openings including doorways, air or ventilation intake systems, entryways, and op-erable windows. Smoking is also prohibited within 50 feet of any outdoor work area.” STTAC was again able to provide free signs to assist compliance.

If any business is interested in adopting a TFO policy for their business they can contact Tere-sa Matterazzo, STTAC Coordinator at tmatter-azzo@co.chemung.ny.us or by phone at 937-9922.

Ulster County Established a Tobacco Retail License and Reducing Youth Exposure to Tobacco Law

According to the Ulster County Tobacco Li-censing and Reduced Youth Exposure to To-bacco Law ,“ Effective January 1, 2016, no Person shall sell, offer for sale, or permit the sale of Tobacco Products to consumers in Ulster County, without possessing a valid To-bacco Retail License issued by the Ulster County Department of Health.”

This law will help to keep Tobacco Retailers away from schools by preventing new retailers from opening within1000ft of schools. The law states, “With the exception of the first year subsequent to this Local Law’s effective date, no New Tobacco Retail License shall be issued to any establishment located within 1000 feet of the nearest point of the property line of a School. Renewed Tobacco Retail Li-cense(s) shall be issued to Person(s) located within 1000 feet of a School which have previ-ously held a Tobacco Retail License. A new

Applicant who purchases a business located within 1000 feet of a School may apply for a New Tobacco Retail License only if the previ-ous owner held a valid and current Tobacco Retail License and the operations of the busi-ness are staying at the same location and with-in the same scope.”

In the Legislative Intent section of this law it lists many reasons why this law is needed and justified. One major reason is that “Studies have found higher rates of smoking at schools with more tobacco retailers within walking distance. Researchers suggest that limiting the proximity of tobacco outlets to schools may be an effective strategy to reduce youth smoking rates.” If you are interested in more infor-mation, please visit the Ulster County website to read more about this law: http://goo.gl/ap4hQ8

Smoking in Top-Grossing US Movies 2014

SUMMARY of FINDINGS

From 2002 to 2014, the share of youth-rated (G/PG/PG-13) films with tobacco imagery fell by nearly half, from 68% to 36%. Howev-er, almost half of PG-13 films still featured tobacco imagery in 2014. There has been no substantial decline in the percentage of all youth-rated films with smoking since 2010.

Films rated G or PG comprise about 20 per-cent of all top-grossing films. Tobacco pres-ence in these films continued to be very low, less than a single incident per film on average. PG-13 films comprise 45 percent of top-grossing films. On average, there were 19 to-bacco incidents per PG-13 film in 2014, near the top of the range observed between 2002 and 2014.

While the share of PG-13 films with any smoking has decreased, tobacco incidents per PG-13 film with smoking have increased. In 2014, the average PG-13 film with smoking included more tobacco incidents than in any year since 2002 — and more than were seen in R-rated films since 2007. As a result, there were as many total tobacco incidents in PG-13 films in 2014 as there were in 2002: more than 1,150.

R-rated films average twice as much smoking as PG-13 films. But audiences for youth-rated films are more than twice as large as for R-rated films, and more youth-rated than R-rated top-grossing films are released each year. As a result, in 2014, PG-13 films accounted for 56 percent of US moviegoers’ tobacco exposure (10.6 billion tobacco impressions) while R-rated films delivered 43 percent (8.3 billion).

From 2010 to 2014, Time Warner’s Warner Bros. film division accounted for 23 percent of the 101 billion tobacco impressions delivered to US moviegoers by youth-rated films, fol-

lowed by Sony (19%), Viacom’s Paramount (15%), Fox (13%), Disney (8%), and Com-cast’s Universal (6%). Independent producer-distributers, who do not belong to the Motion Picture Association of America, accounted for 16 percent of audience exposure, in theaters, from youth-rated films.

Film companies have varied in their perfor-mance since the US Surgeon General conclud-ed, in 2012, that on-screen smoking causes children to smoke. At Warner Bros. and Dis-ney, tobacco incidents per PG-13 film plum-meted from 2013 to 2014. However, PG-13 rated tobacco content more than doubled — often much more — at the four other MPAA-member studios, all of which claim to discour-age smoking in their kid-rated movies. PG-13 smoking also doubled in films from independ-ent companies that have no such policies.

The rise in on-screen tobacco incidents and continuous delivery of billions of tobacco im-pressions to young moviegoers, despite tem-porizing gestures by the US film industry, un-derscores the urgent need to modernize the MPAA’s R-rating to cover all future films with tobacco imagery. This would give all film pro-ducers a voluntary, market incentive to make the films that children and adolescents see most smokefree.

The full report is available at

http://escholarship.org/uc/item/5d5348rs.

Author:

Polansky, Jonathan R, Onbeyond LLC;

Titus, Kori, Breathe California of Sacramento-Emigrant

Trails;

Atayeva, Renata, Breathe California of Sacramento-

Emigrant Trails;

Glantz, Stanton A PhD, University of California, San

Francisco

Currently, it is not

required by most

jurisdictions that

landlords disclose what

their tobacco policy on

tobacco use is.

Reality Check Youth Participate in Cigarette Butt Pick-Up in Honor or Earth Day

Local youth are celebrated Earth Day this year by participating in a community cigarette butt pick-up at a Lafayette Park in Watkins Glens on April 21, 2015. Reality Check youth members helped organize the event, and encouraged community members and other youth groups to attend. If you any youth are interested in becoming involved in Reality Check they can contact Sarah Robbins, Reality Check Coordinator by phone at 737-2858 or by email at: Sarahrobbins@co.chemung.ny.us.ny

SmokeFreeHousingNY.org

STTAC.org

The Southern Tier Tobacco Awareness Coalition (STTAC) seeks to build healthier communities through tobacco free living in Chemung, Schuyler & Steuben, NY.

STTAC has 4 initiatives:

To reduce the impact of retail tobacco product marketing on youth.

To increase the number Tobac-co Free Outdoor (TFO) poli-cies, which includes tobacco free worksites, parks, vehicles, entryways and other public out-door areas.

To increase the number of smoke-free multi-unit housing.

Eliminate pro-tobacco imagery from youth-rated movies and the internet.

Physical & Mailing Address:

103 Washington Street Elmira, NY 14901

Elmira Office Phone number:

Main Line: 607-737-2858

Director: 737-2028 ext.73482

Reality Check Coordinator: 737-2028 ext.73480

Community Engagement Coordinator: 737-2028 ext.73483

Program Assistant: 737-2028 ext.73481

Corning Office Phone number:

Main Line: 607-937-9922

We’re on the Web, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube! www.sttac.org www.facebook/sttac www.twitter/sttacny www.youtube/sttacny

World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) (2015): STTAC is planning a community training and recognition event. The event will be a training for community members and local decision makers about STTAC’s Point-Of-Sale (POS) tobacco marketing initiative. The training will focus on how to reduce the impact of retail tobacco product marketing on youth. Hear from community experts about the prob-lem of tobacco marketing in our community, find out what can be done to combat it, hear from others who have passed POS policies successfully, and get questions answered by public health lawyers.

Training Details

Date: May 29th Location: Corning Country Club Time: 12:00pm-3:00pm **Lunch Provided ** This is a FREE training and there are only 40 spots available. Please contact Teresa Matterazzo to register: Email: tmatterazzo@co.chemung.ny.us

Community Training in Recognition of World No Tobacco Day: Does Big Tobacco Target Our Youth?

STTAC Contact Information:

Tobacco is the Leading Cause of Preventable Death

Source: 1. Estimates were extrapolated using the results published in "Actual Causes of Death in the United States, 2000", JAMA, March 2004, 291 (10) and NYS 2012 Vital Statistics data. 2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs — 2014. Atlanta: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, 2014.

Since the original Surgeon General’s Report on smoking and health in 1964 highlighted the link

between tobacco use and lung cancer, substantial progress has been made to decrease tobacco

use prevalence in New York State. However, despite comprehensive smoke‐free policies, high

federal and state taxes, and powerful media campaigns, tobacco remains the primary cause of

preventable death in the state, claiming between 26,000 and 28,200 lives annually.1, 2

Preventable deaths due to the leading eight causes listed below comprised 47% of all deaths

for 2012.

Of the preventable deaths listed below, 38% resulted from tobacco use.

Tobacco use, poor diet, and physical inactivity resulted in more deaths than alcohol con-

sumption, microbial agents, toxic agents, motor vehicle crashes, incidents involving fire-

arms, and unsafe sexual behaviors combined.