Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with a Longer, Healthier Life, Become An EX®

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Latinos from coast-to-coast will observe Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15 through October 15. A host of activities from festivals, fairs and parades will fill local calendars, as communities commemorate the anniversary of independence for Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Nicaragua. The nation’s leading public health organizations hope to dovetail this celebration of Latino independence with one of longer, healthier lives by encouraging Hispanic smokers to relearn their lives without cigarettes.

The American Legacy Foundation, in conjunction with a host of other organizations and state health agencies, have joined forces on a new national public health program called EX^®. The comprehensive program is aimed to help those who continue to struggle with the difficult process of quitting. It is focused on changing the way smokers feel about the overall process of quitting and will help guide them to valuable resources to build a successful quit attempt.

This new public education effort will encourage the fifteen percent of all Hispanic adults who smoke to approach quitting smoking as “re-learning life without cigarettes.” EX provides smokers with information that can help them prepare for and guide a quit attempt by 1) “Re-learning” their thinking on the behavioral aspects of smoking and how different smoking triggers can be overcome with practice and preparation; 2) “Re-learning” their knowledge of addiction and how medications can increase their chances for quitting success; and 3) “Re-learning” their ideas of how support from friends and family members can play a critical role in quitting.

EX educates smokers through advertisements on English and Spanish language television, radio, online and via out-of-home promotions. The program also offers smokers an interactive Web site, http://www.becomeanex.org/ or http://www.convierteteenunex.com/ which features action-oriented tools and information to help smokers prepare for quitting, by developing a personalized plan. The site offers a virtual community, where smokers share personal stories and best practices about their quit attempt to help encourage others wanting to make the decision to quit. In addition to the online component the EX program offers a fotonovela in English and Spanish as an additional tool to help the Hispanic community overcome the difficult process of quitting.

Most smokers in America – 70 percent – want to quit, but in 2000, only about five percent were successful in quitting long-term. Quitting smoking is ultimately one of the single most important lifestyle changes one can make to improve and extend their lives. Research shows that Hispanics are more likely than white smokers to attempt to quit, but less likely to use cessation medications or receive quit smoking advice from doctors. Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S.; cardiovascular disease is the primary cause of death among Hispanics. It is estimated that thirty percent of deaths from cardiovascular disease are a result of tobacco use. Smokers therefore need to be armed with all the available information to make the best, most informed choices about the smoking cessation medications and resources available to them.

“Research tells us that more than 4 million adult Latinos in the U.S. smoke,” says American Legacy Foundation President and CEO Cheryl Healton, Dr. P.H. “The American Legacy Foundation is committed to providing communities of color and underserved populations with culturally-sensitive and relevant resources to quit smoking. The National Alliance for Tobacco Cessation is working hard to do this while also embracing Hispanic culture and preserving it through encouraging healthy lifestyles, free of tobacco addiction and disease.”

The NATC is a growing group of states, non-profit organizations, foundations and corporations, all dedicated to helping people quit smoking.

Members of the NATC include:

Ø       The American Cancer Society

Ø       The American Heart Association

Ø       The American Legacy Foundation

Ø       The Association of State and Health Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO)

Ø       C-Change

Ø       The Mayo Clinic

Ø       Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Ø       Arkansas Department of Health

Ø       Arizona Department of Health Services

Ø       Connecticut Department of Health

Ø       District of Columbia / American Lung Association of DC

Ø       Indiana Tobacco Prevention and Cessation

Ø       Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco-Free Living

Ø       Louisiana State Department of Health and Hospitals

Ø       The Rapides Foundation (Alexandria, LA)

Ø       Missouri Foundation for Health

Ø       State of New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services

Ø       State of New York Department of Health

Ø       North Carolina Division of Public Health

Ø       North Dakota Department of Health

Ø       Oklahoma Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust

Ø       State of Oregon Tobacco Prevention and Education Program

Ø       Rhode Island Department of Health

Ø       Vermont Department of Health

Ø       Washington State Department of Health

Ø       Wyoming Department of Health

All of these organizations agree that while smokers may know why they should quit, many just don’t know how. Therefore, EX steers away from focusing solely on the reasons for quitting and instead empowers smokers to use FREE resources and methods that have been proven to increase smokers’ chances of quitting successfully.