CVS, American Cancer Society launch initiative to help colleges go tobacco-free

AS PART OF CVS Health's “Be The First" initiative, which is aimed at helping deliver the first tobacco-free generation, CVS and the American Cancer Society will provide grants to 125 institutions of higher learning to help U.S. colleges go tobacco-free
AS PART OF CVS Health's “Be The First" initiative, which is aimed at helping deliver the first tobacco-free generation, CVS and the American Cancer Society will provide grants to 125 institutions of higher learning to help U.S. colleges go tobacco-free

WOONSOCKET – A three-year, $3.6 million initiative to provide grants to 125 U.S. institutions of higher learning to help them go tobacco-free was launched Wednesday by the American Cancer Society and CVS Health Corp.
Through the partnership, ACS and CVS created the Tobacco-Free Generation Campus Initiative, part of a nationwide effort to deliver the first tobacco-free generation.
“Creating smoke-free campuses will move us one step closer to delivering the first tobacco-free generation,” Eileen Howard Boone, senior vice president for corporate social responsibility and philanthropy for CVS Health, and president of the CVS Health Foundation, said in a statement.
With CVS Health Foundation funding, ACS will award grants to colleges and universities in 19 states, including Rhode Island and Massachusetts, which have the greatest need for stronger smoke-free campus policies to help them implement tobacco-free campus policies.
Twenty-five grants will be awarded in the first year and 50 will be given out in each of the second and third years.

The other 17 states targeted by the program are Alabama, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia.
CVS spokesman Joseph Goode said institutions of higher learning in the 19 states included in the program will have the opportunity to apply for the grants, which provide the expertise, support and implementation resources to go tobacco-free.
He said CVS Health is hopeful that the program will expand, and other states that are not involved in the program also will seek help with going tobacco-free.
The ACS initiative is part of Be The First, CVS Health’s new five-year, $50 million campaign to tackle tobacco use, the No. 1 cause of preventable deaths in the United States, and deliver the first tobacco-free generation. In 2014, CVS Health became the first national pharmacy chain to eliminate the sale of cigarettes and tobacco products from its stores.
Said Cliff Douglas, vice president for tobacco control and head of the American Cancer Society’s Center for Tobacco Control, “Creating a tobacco-free generation is a lofty goal, and reaching it requires a broad spectrum of strategies targeting multiple audiences. To be successful, it is imperative to prevent and stop smoking among college students.”
The organizations shared data from a 2012 U.S. Surgeon General’s report that said approximately 90 percent of smokers start by the time they are college age and 99 percent start by age 26.
Despite these statistics, they said only 1,483 of the 4,700 U.S. college and university campuses are completely smoke-free, and only 1,137 are completely tobacco-free, citing data compiled by the Americans for Nonsmoker Rights.

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