Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, May 17, 2011 (Agenda)
Item 13
Item 13, receive update from county staff regarding tobacco cessation program/communities putting prevention to work initiative.
all that goes together, I think, tobacco cessation program, communities putting prevention to work together initiative.
thank y'all for your patience this morning.
we had hoped to get to you a lot earlier.
>> good afternoon, judge, Commissioners.
sherri fleming, county executive and health and human services.
we have a brief update for you today on a project that is being jointly implemented by both humane society and the -- by health and human services and the wellness clinic.
we're happy to be partnering with them on this project for the benefit not only to our community, but to Travis County employees.
in the way of background, we just wanted to share with you that the city of Austin back in 2010 was awarded $7.4 million with part of it being dedicated toward the implementation of tobacco prevention and control initiatives.
part of that funding was made available to the community in order to promote the development of policy which will result in tobacco cessation at work sites, faith-based organizations, the community and in health care organizations.
Travis County is a subrecipient of those funds to the tune of about $200,000 and we entered into that agreement with the city with that project ending February 29th, 2012.
you see there on the next slide other subrecipients of funding from the city.
they included many of our partners, Austin community college, capital metro, central health, other departments within the city of Austin, integral care and the university of Texas center for schools center, health science center school of public health.
in October of 1986 the Travis County Commissioners' court implemented a smoking policy that basically prohibited the carrying and holding of a lighted pipe, cigar or expwret of any kind or any other lighted smoking equipment or devices and the lighting of, emitting or exhaling of the smoke of a pipe, cigar or cigarette in all public buildings owned, leased or maintained by Travis County, including the Travis County courthouse and the Travis County jail.
all Travis County buildings within the city of Austin are subject to a city ordinance which prohibits smoking within 15 feet of the building's entrance.
and those buildings reflect signage that states that city ordinance.
so the guiding implementation for this project include two protect the well-being of Travis County employees, their families, the community, by reducing tobacco use prevalence and exposure to secondhand smoke.
to explore the development and potential implementation of a tobacco-free workplace policy at all Travis County properties and to provide resources for employees who want to stop using tobacco products.
our wellness program alreadies has robust services available to our employees who would like to stop smoking.
currently there are referrals made to the american cancer society programs to various classes with seton and then for those employees who are insured by our health plan, nicotine replacement therapy is available.
so why is it important for us to use this money in this way at this time?
a 2006 surgeon general's report indicated that 21 percent osh 45 million united states adults smoke cigarettes currently.
and 126 million americans are exposed to secondhand smoke.
within that number is six percent or 22 million children between the ages of three to 11 years are exposed to secondhand smoke.
those folks are exposed to secondhand smoke most often in the workplace or in their homes.
secondhand smoke causes heart disease and lung cancer in nonsmoking adults and a number of health conditions, including sudden infant death syndrome and respiratory infections for children.
secondhand smoke contains at least 250 known toxic chemicals, including more than 50 that cause cancer.
so what will we be doing over the next six months in implementing this project for Travis County?
we will be engaging county staff as well as the community.
we plan to administer a survey that dr. Dear will talk about in a minute.
as part of the program, employees and managers will be actively engaged in their interest in a recommendation to the court regarding proposed revisions to the Travis County smoking policy.
what those changes might be.
and whether it may apply to only employees or customers or visitors or clients as well.
any proposed changes will be circulated among county employees.
they will be made available to our constituents so that they may have an opportunity to express their interest in what could potentially be a policy that you would review for approval.
dr. Dear, do you want to talk about our survey?
>> yes.
we'll be sending out a survey to the clinic administrator using survey monkey.
and we'll basically be actively engaging the employees and managers to get their input on the whole process.
and as you had said, it's very -- secondhand smoke is a very important issue as well because it does cause significant illnesses and death, causes 3,400 lung cancer deaths a year in nonsmokers and also 46,000 premature heart disease deaths in nonsmokers.
so we would like to get the input from the employees and also the managers, so we'll be sending out a survey that contains approximately 19 questions.
and these questions will be addressing certain smoking behaviors, opinions, reports and rememberceptions about -- and perceptions about the tobacco policy in Travis County.
and once we have the information we can put it all together into a program which is targeted at different areas.
>> finally I think it's important for us to say that even though we are the recipient of this funding through the city of Austin, nothing in the grant requires the Travis County Commissioners' court to amend their policy if they choose not to.
to staff will be making a recommendation and it will be totally up to the Commissioners' court as to whether or not at that time you would like to make any changes to your smoking policy.
so persons who would have questions about the process, about the tobacco cessation project could refer them to our project team, any of the people you see here.
and starting from my right is brandon chis hom.
next to him is lindsey shea.
next to him is jose mean I can't with our wellness ma'am pram and dr. Dee, myself or (indiscernible), any of the staff here can help with questions and staff can expect to see e-mails from brandon and lindsey as we move through this process.
so that is our report.
any questions we're happy to answer.
>> how many smokers do we have at Travis County?
>> we have approximately -- it's a guesstimate, but we estimate approximately 20 percent, so that would be 900 out of the 4,500 employees.
and we do have programs in place to help them stop smoking.
as was mentioned earlier we have the american lung association program, we have the clinic where we provide medications to stop smoking at no cost and we also have programs at seton and the wellness clinic.
>> for those wondering why this is the county's business, what's -- by the way, I got an email to that effect.
what's the answer to that?
why is it the county's business?
>> well, I believe it's the county's business because the smoking, the secondhand smoke issue affects all of us, not only in terms of persons who work and visit Travis County facilities, but the secondhand smoke affects our employees in interacting with folks who may be smokers and who might smoke in our facilities.
I think it's an incredible cost to our health plan for the illnesses that are caused by smokers.
and again, it is the community health concerns.
and a part of our responsibility, of course, is public health.
so smoking has proven to be year after year a community health concern as it relates to secondhand smoke.
>> and the money we're spending now really would be a federal grant funds given that the city of Austin and shared with Travis County for this initiative.
>> that's correct.
that is part of the american recovery and reinvestment act.
>> any other questions or comments?
thank you very much.
we eagerly anticipate receipt of that survey questionnaire.
so we can provide responses.
>> thank you.
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