Creighton and the Metro Omaha Tobacco Action Coalition (MOTAC) hope to “smoke out” tobacco usage on Tuesday with their presentation “Tobacco: Past, Present, Future and You,” at 6 p.m. in the Harper Center, Room 3023.
The event, which is free and open to the public, is in honor of the upcoming American Cancer Society Great American Smokeout. The Great American Smokeout, now in its 37th year, encourages smokers to either come up with a plan to quit smoking on Thursday, or to quit smoking for that day.
The Creighton event was spearheaded by the Creighton Cardiac Center, in particular by Jasmine Williams, the Health Educator at the Cardiac Center. The Cardiac Center took charge in planning the event, according to Williams, because they do a lot of research involving tobacco usage. Williams said that tobacco was still one of the major killers in the U.S., so one of the Cardiac Center’s focuses is on working to curb tobacco usage.
The MOTAC also helped fund and support the planning of the Great American Smokeout event at Creighton in order to focus on curbing youth tobacco usage. The MOTAC is a coalition consisting of more than 50 health related individuals, organizations and educational groups working towards tobacco prevention in Douglas County.
At the event, the film “Addiction Incorporated” will be screened. Released in 2011, the film focuses on scientist Victor DeNoble, a former researcher for tobacco company Philip Morris who eventually blew the whistle on some of the company’s practices. The movie also covers the tobacco industry’s responses to some of DeNoble’s claims.
“What we’re trying to focus on is just making sure that people are aware of how the tobacco industry has presented lies,” Williams said.
The event will also feature a panel of representatives from different organizations, including MOTAC, Tobacco Free Nebraska and the Nebraska state chapter of the American Cancer Society. The panel discussion will revolve around the question, “What have different organizations across Nebraska been doing to approach this issue in their communities, and how are we going to keep moving forward on this issue?”
As a member of MOTAC, Marcy Thompson has a positive outlook on how tobacco prevention has fared in the state of Nebraska.
“Some great advancements that MOTAC is seeing in our community and Nebraska is getting more voluntary smoke-free housing for rental properties and public housing, having more businesses and academic institutions adopt tobacco-free campus policies and maintaining enforcement measures to keep the percentage of tobacco-retailers selling tobacco to minors low,” Thompson said.
While the event is free, anyone who is interested in attending the Nov. 13 event can register at www.tobaccofilm.eventbrite.com.