NEW ORLEANS – On Wednesday, March 18, 2015, The Smoking Cessation Trust, in conjunction with Greater New Orleans Louisiana Healthy Community Coalition (GNOHCC) members, will be sharing its quit smoking message at a Kick Butts Day Awareness event at Delgado Community College, 615 City Park Ave., New Orleans.
Information and health screening tables will be set up outside the Fitness Center from 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Delgado is the largest college/ university in New Orleans that is tobacco-free.
To counteract the numerous messages targeting young smokers, Kick Butts Day was started in 1996 as a day of activism to empower youth to stand out, speak up and seize control against Big Tobacco. It is organized by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and sponsored by the United Health Foundation. By hosting “kick butts” events around the country, including many here in Louisiana, they aim to explain the dangers of cigarettes to this young, potentially vulnerable, audience.
The Smoking Cessation Trust is the result of a court judgment in a 14-year-old class action lawsuit entitled Scott v. American Tobacco Company. The judgment became final in 2011 and ordered certain tobacco companies to fund a statewide, 10-year smoking cessation program to benefit more than 200,000 Louisiana smokers who are members of the plaintiff class (the "Scott Class"). The recipient of the award was a court-established and court-supervised smoking cessation program to benefit all Louisiana residents who began smoking cigarettes before September 1, 1988.
Applicants who register for the Smoking Cessation Trust program and are approved as qualified recipients will be eligible to receive any of the following Trust program cessation services completely free: cessation medications, individual/ group cessation counseling, telephone quit-line support, and/or intensive cessation support services. By using these services, evidence suggests that participants will increase the success rate of attempts to stop smoking cigarettes, and may successfully quit—for good.
To date, the Trust has registered more than 26,000 Louisiana residents who are ready to quit.
