Special edition: What a Week!


What a Week!

Respiratory Health Association of Metropolitan Chicago's e-newsletter is published monthly and contains news of our happenings, program updates and links to lung health resources. This special e-newsletter was sent out at the end of November to let readers know about lung health efforts and victories.

This month's issue includes:

To receive our monthly e-newsletter, send an email to info@lungchicago.org.

 

RHAMC employee featured in TIME Magazine

  

This week's issue of Time Magazine features Brian Urbaszewski, our director of environmental health policy at Respiratory Health Association. The story, "The War on Coal," is an in-depth look at the issue of coal power plants across the country. Brian spoke about the negative health impact of the Fisk and Crawford coal-fired power plants on Chicago’s South Side. Read the story on the Time Magazine website, or pick up a copy of the issue today! 

More than 350 attend Living Better Together COPD Conference

  

On Tuesday, more than 350 people attended our 8th annual Living Better Together COPD Conference. They learned the importance of managing COPD exacerbations, the benefits of laughter therapy and pulmonary rehab and the significance of lung health advocacy. In the coming weeks, DVDs of our conference will be available to our partners throughout the Midwest, who are eager to replicate the reach and success of the Illinois COPD initiative.  Read more about COPD or view a gallery of some of the conference photos on our website.

Quit Week comes to a close

Thursday marked the end of the Chicago Tobacco Prevention Project's second annual Quit Week, a series of activities to raise awareness about local resources available to help people quit smoking. This year’s Quit Week featured: celebrity-filled commercials promoting local quit-smoking resources; our second annual LIVE CBS 2 Quit-a-Thon, during which we took almost 200 calls in two hours; the unveiling of new billboards highlighting the effects of secondhand smoke on children; and an open letter in today’s Chicago Sun-Times calling for more smoke-free environments and effective support for the 70 percent of smokers who say they want to quit. Check out a recap of the week on our website.

Ordinance passed for non-cigarette tobacco product taxes

Lastly, this afternoon, the Cook County Board of Commissioners passed an ordinance to include non-cigarette tobacco products in the county's tobacco taxes. Since all tobacco products are equal opportunity killers, we argued that cigars, roll-your-own cigarettes and other non-cigarette tobacco products should be taxed in the same way as cigarettes. Closing the tobacco tax loophole will lower the rates of youth tobacco use, and thus save lives. Read this breaking news on the WBEZ website. 

We are excited by these victories, and remain eager for the work that remains.