Respiratory therapists should be able to understand tobacco addiction, how to effectively evaluate tobacco use, how to assess readiness to change, and how to effectively treat tobacco addiction. Why?

• 430,000 people die each year from tobacco-related diseases
• 3,000 children become regular users of tobacco everyday
• Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death
• Secondhand smoke is the third leading cause of preventable death
• Secondhand smoke causes more than 53,000 premature deaths in nonsmokers each year
• Over 35% of our high school students are currently using tobacco products

We, as respiratory therapists, must take an active role in reducing this epidemic. We specialize in the treatment of tobacco-related disease, now let us specialize in understanding and treating the cause.

The Smoking and Tobacco Related Issues Committee will be managing this website. If you have information that you would like to add to this site, please contact Gaylene Lee, MEd, RRT-NPS, by e-mail: LeeGRene@aol.com or by phone: (559) 790-8795.

Articles of Interest

• Secondhand Smoke: Evidence Shows Ill Effects
• Smoking-cessation programs—Does the 5A program work?
• NHLBI Study Shows Smoking Cessation Programs Improve Survival
• Childhood Exposure to Smoke May Increase Risk of Back Pain Later
• What is the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control
• UK Universities Agree Protocol for Tobacco Company Funding
• Smoking Interferes with Asthma Drug
• Nicotine is a Neurotoxin…
• Economic Burden of Environmental Tobacco Smoke...

Education Curricula
These are resources for use in educational settings.

Links
Here you will find links to organizations and other websites dealing with tobacco related issues.

Pharmacotherapy for the Tobacco User

• Chantix Warning I
• Chantix Warning II
• Pharmacotherapy Treatment Options at a Glance
• Pharmacotherapy Comparison Table

PowerPoint
Here you can view Microsoft PowerPoint® presentations dealing with smoking and tobacco-related issues:

• Best Practices (44 KB PowerPoint file)
• PowerPoint Presentations on Smoke-Free Environments Issues
• Setting up a New Tobacco Dependence Treatment Service
• Smoking in the Movies (2.1 MB PowerPoint file)
• Standards of Practice for a Tobacco Treatment Specialist
  (687 KB PowerPoint file)
• Tobacco Addiction: Why Is It So Powerful? (5.4 MB PowerPoint file)
• Tobacco Use in China (14.1 MB PowerPoint file)

Resource Materials
Use these tobacco resource materials for resource material about tobacco:

• The Anatomy of a Cigarette
• History of World Tobacco (1 MB Acrobat file)
• Medicare Smoking Cessation Materials (313 KB Acrobat file)
• Michigan Coalitions (20 KB Acrobat file)
• New York State Tobacco Dependence Center
• Participating Manufacturers (344 KB Acrobat file)
• Quitlines
• Smoking Cessation Resource Document
• Tobacco Continuing Education
• Part B—Smoking Cessation Counseling (64 KB Acrobat file)

Tobacco Treatment Specialist Courses Available

• University of Massachusetts (272 KB Acrobat file)

Tobacco Treatment Specialist Standards of Practice
The Association for the Treatment of Tobacco Use and Dependence has developed a set of competencies to guide the provision of intensive treatment for tobacco dependency and to ground this practice in the best evidence for effective treatment.

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