A Call to Action: Successful Tobacco Control for the Future

Conference Speakers

April Roeseler, MSPH, Chief Local Programs and Evaluation California Tobacco Control Program

April Roeseler has worked for the California Tobacco Control Program seems its inception in 1989. She is the Chief of Local Programs and Evaluation for the California Department of Public Health, Tobacco Control Section (CDHS/TCS). She is responsible for overall implementation of a $35 million grant and local assistance program, a $4 million evaluation and surveillance program, and she oversees information management, technology and dissemination for CDHS/TCS. Ms. Roeseler coordinated the State's response to the federal Synar Amendment in 1994, the 1995 and 1997 Operation Storefront campaigns and was involved in the development and implementation of the Project SMART Money campaign, Communities of Excellence in Tobacco Control in 2000 and 2003, the 2002 STORE Campaign, California's harm reduction policy paper, and oversees implementation of the California Tobacco Control Program's Online Tobacco Information System (OTIS). She is a co-author of the Communities of Excellence Plus training and resource manual disseminated by the Training and Technical Assistance Center and assisted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Office of Smoking or Health's to rate key indicators for evaluating comprehensive tobacco control programs. She received her Masters of Science degree in Public Health (MSPH) from the University of Missouri, Columbia, School of Medicine and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) from California State University, Fresno.

Speakers abstract - Changing Social Norms Around Tobacco Use: California Style

The California Tobacco Control Program is administered by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH). It was launched in April 1990 following a voter approved ballot initiative that raised the state excise tax on a pack of cigarettes from 10 cents per pack to 35 cents per pack and earmarked 5 cents per pack for a comprehensive tobacco control program. The comprehensive tobacco control program is jointly administered by the California Department of Education (CDE) and the California Department of Public Health (CDPH). CDE receives approximately one-third of the funding for a curricular school-based program targeting grades six through twelve while the CDPH receives the remaining two-thirds to conduct a community-based program, media campaign and evaluation/surveillance activities. The CTCP focuses on four strategies which are integrated through out the community programs, media, and evaluation/surveillance components.

These are:

1. Reduce and eliminate exposure to secondhand smoke
2. Counter pro-tobacco Influences
3. Reduce the availability of tobacco
4. Provide support for cessation services

Since the inception of the CTCP, adult smoking prevalence has been reduced by 45% from 22.7% in 1988 to 13.3% in 2006; per capita cigarette consumption has declined by nearly 60%; youth smoking rates are the lowest in the nation; and lung/bronchial cancer has declined at a rate four times faster in California than the rest of the United States. This presentation will share the strategies, challenges, and successes of the longest running comprehensive tobacco control program in the United States.