California Student-Led Health Campaign Wins National Award; COUGH to Receive HHS Secretary's Innovations in Prevention Award.

News Editors

SACRAMENTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 10, 2003

California's Campuses Organized and United for Good Health campaign (COUGH), a statewide anti-smoking program funded by Proposition 99, the 1988 tobacco tax initiative, today was named by United States Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson one of the winners of the inaugural Innovations in Prevention Award. The award recognizes COUGH's innovation, leadership and success in establishing healthy environments on California State University (CSU) campuses and reinforces California's lead role in fighting the negative health consequences of secondhand smoke, which kills 65,000 nonsmokers every year in America.

"COUGH's success exemplifies how far Californians have come in recognizing the inherent dangers of tobacco smoke and our commitment to creating a safe and healthy environment for all, free from those dangers," said Roberta Lawson, program consultant of the California Department of Health Services, Tobacco Control Section. "We applaud the students and all those involved with COUGH for their achievements and for receiving this prestigious national award."

COUGH is a statewide, grassroots campaign on CSU campuses to protect the health and well being of students, faculty and staff. The campaign seeks to strengthen anti-smoking policies on all 23 campuses while educating the college communities about the risks of tobacco use and secondhand smoke. Launched in January 2002, the campaign initially focused on helping individual CSU campuses obtain the power to determine their own, more-stringent smoke-free policies after their autonomy and regulations were threatened. By September 2002, the CSU Board of Trustees passed the Title 5 Amendment, giving the power back to campus presidents and encouraging them to create a 20-foot minimum smoke-free doorway policy. To date, 21 of the 23 CSU campuses have made changes.

"The success of the COUGH campaign is due to a true coalition of players including students, faculty, staff, unions, community tobacco control programs and individuals from across California," said Kimberlee Homer, college project coordinator for the California Youth Advocacy Network (CYAN). "Working together gives us the power to change policy and create healthier college communities."

In addition to successful secondhand smoke policies on CSU campuses, the COUGH campaign has led to appeals for the creation of entirely smoke-free campuses and the expansion of the campaign to the University of California and community college systems. The COUGH campaign's success bolstered support for passage of new state legislation, effective Jan. 1, 2004, that prohibits smoking within 20 feet of doorways of state, county and city buildings as well as all CSU, nine University of California and 108 community college campuses.

The Innovations in Prevention Awards are part of the Steps to a HealthierUS initiative and recognize innovative, exemplary chronic disease prevention and health promotion programs that address chronic diseases and underlying behavioral risk factors such as tobacco use.

The COUGH campaign is a project of CYAN, a Proposition 99-funded agency that supports youth and young adult tobacco control advocacy throughout the state.