601 East 14th Street, Sedalia, Missouri 65301 • (660) 826-8833
The countdown is complete and the Tobacco Free deadline has arrived. The use of tobacco products has been eliminated on all health center property.
The tobacco restriction includes, in Sedalia, the main health center campus, on 14th Street, as well as Bothwell OB/GYN Clinic at 1718 South Ingram, Bothwell Medical Equipment located at 501 East 17th Street, Bothwell Diagnostic Center-Winchester at 10th and Winchester Street, and Bothwell Home Health and Hospice in the Thompson Hills Shopping Center. Included in the tobacco restriction are the health center’s clinic buildings and property located in Cole Camp, Warsaw and Windsor.
In conjunction with BRHC and its clinics, many of the doctor offices in Sedalia and the surrounding communities received a packet of materials to help with the tobacco free initiative. These packets contained posters, table tents and reminder cards for visitors of each office.
According to the American Lung Association, cigarette smoking is the number one source of preventable morbidity and premature mortality worldwide. Smoking is responsible for approximately one in five deaths in the United States. Even more alarming, each year in Missouri, 32,500 children under 18 will try cigarettes for the first time – 89 kids each day.
Because our state has done little to curb smoking among children, Missouri has one of the highest rates of teen smoking in the country. Missouri ranks last in the nation in funding smoking prevention programs. Because it was not required, the state’s $1 billion settlement from the class action lawsuit against the tobacco industry was not used to fund smoking prevention programs. Consequently, the number of children who try tobacco in our state continues to rise every day.
An issue to help curb smoking among our youth will be on the ballot in November. This measure will increase the state’s cigarette tax by 80 cents per pack. Proceeds from this tax will fund $61 million dollars for smoking prevention and cessation programs in Missouri.
Missouri has the second lowest tobacco tax (only South Carolina has a per pack tax) in the nation on its tobacco tax. The U.S. Surgeon General strongly believes that raising the price of tobacco and implementing an effective prevention program is the best way to stop our youth from starting to smoke. Studies from other states indicate that for every ten percent increase in the price of cigarettes, seven percent of our youth would quit smoking.
Don’t let another child fall victim to this deadly habit. For more information, please visit www.healthymissouri.org.
