Richland County Health Department

Tobacco Prevention Program
The Tobacco Prevention Program offers comprehensive tobacco prevention and control measures in Richland County in the following areas: Prevent Youth Initiation to Tobacco Use, Promote Cessation, Reduce and Eliminate Secondhand Smoke, Identify High Risk Groups for Use and Difficulty in Quitting. The Tobacco Prevention Program operates on the best practices model set forth by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. This model promotes scientific and researched based prevention methods that are proven to be effective.


	Working together promoting healthy lifestyles and living well.

Prevent Youth Initiation

Life Skills, which is evidence based social skills and drug resistance curriculum is taught to 6-8 graders in the Richland County School Districts.
Tobacco Free School Policies, Comprehensive policy that is 24/7 and prohibited tobacco use among students, staff and visitors. Schools are encouraged to work towards the Gold Star policy. Wahpeton and Richland 44 School Districts have reached Gold Star status.
Kick Butts Day- Tobacco Awareness project held annually in March www.kickbuttsday.org
Class Presentations to all age levels
STOMP- Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drug prevention project
Routine Compliance Checks on Tobacco Retailers in Richland County
Retailer Education Program
Youth Activities

Promote Cessation
Combination therapy which includes the use of proven cessation counseling along with medications to help with managing cravings is the most effective method of quitting. The following counseling services increase your chances of quitting long-term by 30-50%:
Freedom From Smoking

ND Tobacco Quitline

.

Both of these services are free and if you enroll you will be eligible to receive financial assistance to obtain medications to help with the symptoms of withdrawal and cravings. Medications may include: Chantix, Zyban, Nicotine patches, gum, lozenges, inhaler or nasal spray.

Reduce and Eliminate Secondhand Smoke
Millions of Americans, both children and adults, are still exposed to secondhand smoke in their homes and workplaces despite substantial progress in tobacco control in recent years. The health harms can even be more substantial for the nonsmoker being around secondhand smoke. 38,000 people die annually due to secondhand smoke.

To learn more about secondhand smoke and what scientific information are driving cities and states to adopt smoke free policies click

High Risk Groups
Some groups of people are more vulnerable to smoking or have greater difficulty in accessing cessation services. Special emphasis is placed on reaching these groups with appropriate services they include: Pregnant women, teens, 18-24 year olds, blue collar workers, people of lower socioeconomic status and Native Americans.

Richland County Tobacco Free Coalition
The mission statement of the Coalition is to reduce disability and death rates as they relate to tobacco use by actively supporting local tobacco prevention efforts.

The coalition is made up of community members who are passionate about working toward tobacco control and prevention measures. The coalition meets monthly and breaks for the summer. Meetings are generally one hour and are held over the noon hour.

The following are some of the projects that we have worked on: Great American Smokeout, various youth prevention projects, college campus outreach, local policy development, public education campaigns, and setting long range goals for the Tobacco Prevention in Richland County. If you are interested in serving as a volunteer please contact us at (701)-642-7744.

School & Community Resources
The following is a list of resource materials for schools and community organizations in the Richland County area to use. There is no charge to use any of the items from the Resource Library

. Simply contact the Richland County Health Department at 701-642-7744 to request materials.

Here are a few tobacco prevention activities to try with your students or youth group. Many of these activities are age appropriate at any level and only take 1-2 minutes to complete.

Activities for K-3 grade

Activities and 4-6 grade

Betcha Can’t Eat Just One

BB’s

Straws

Bubble Wrap

Activities for Junior High

Graffiti Wall