Category Archives: News

For 24 years, the American Lung Association has analyzed data from official air quality monitors to compile the State of the Air. The more you learn about the air you breathe here in Arizona, the more you can protect your health and take steps to make our air cleaner and healthier. What's the state of your air? Read the report for Arizona Highlights by clicking Select Location.

Read the complete report State of the Air.

...

Every year, on May 31, the World Health Organization (WHO) and global partners celebrate World No Tobacco Day (WNTD). The annual campaign is an opportunity to raise awareness on the harmful and deadly effects of tobacco use and second-hand smoke exposure, and to discourage the use of tobacco in any form.

World No Tobacco Day 2023 will focus on the multiple ways that exposure to tobacco affects the health of people’s lungs worldwide. These include lung cancer, chronic respiratory disease and air pollution.

Tobacco growing and production exacerbates food insecurity

The growing food crisis is driven by conflicts and wars, climatic shocks, and the economic and social impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Structural causes like the choice of crop also have an impact, and a look into tobacco growing reveals how it contributes to increased food insecurity:

Click here (copy and paste) to read more: https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/world-no-tobacco-day-2023---grow-food--not-tobacco

...

Youth smoking dropped to an all-time low of 2.3% in 2021 – down from nearly 23% in 2000 – according to recent data from the University of Michigan’s Monitoring the Future study, representing a colossal win for public health initiatives tackling smoking in young people, including those led by Truth Initiative^®. The new number, released today in the University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future study, marks the lowest rate for students in eighth, 10th and 12th grades since tracking began more than 40 years ago. Cigarette smoking has now dropped 79 percent from its peak in 1997 when more than a quarter of young people smoked, underscoring the success of public education campaigns like Truth Initiative®’s truth® campaign, and programs from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration.

Read more......

To stay competitive, apartment owners are seeking opportunities to provide attractive living amenities aligning with renters’ lifestyles. Smoke-free living is one approach that owners have recognized that can make them more appealing to health-conscious renters, gain an edge in community marketability and enjoy considerable savings in apartment home maintenance and liability. Smoke-free policies greatly reduce smoke-related property damage. Statistics from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development estimate turnover cost on a smoking apartment home to be two to seven times that of a smoke-free unit. Typical repairs of a smoked-in unit include replacing carpets, window coverings, appliances and cleaning and re-painting. Maintenance savings typically average $5,000. “From an operator’s standpoint, the decision to move to smoke-free environments was an easy one,” says Yunmi Martin, Senior Vice President of Shea Apartments, which owns and operates more than 8,100 apartment homes in California, Colorado and Washington. “When turning over an apartment, there is considerably more effort involved in making sure that a former smoking unit is clean and ready for its next resident. It’s one less thing for us to worry about.” ...