Santa Rosa County Tobacco-Free Coalition holds meeting

MILTON, FL –The Santa Rosa County Tobacco-Free Coalition will hold its next meeting on Thursday, April 18th, at 4:00 p.m. in the large conference room at the Florida Department of Health in Santa Rosa County, 5527  Stewart Street in Milton. Topics to be considered will include a report on the strategic plan, election of coalition officers, revision of bylaws, SWAT update, media campaign/SWAT billboard and subcommittee updates.

The Santa Rosa County Tobacco-Free Coalition began in September 2008 as a partnership of community members and agencies working together with a mission to reduce the prevalence of tobacco use and provide education on the dangers of tobacco abuse among children and adults in the county.  Members include: Santa Rosa County Health Department; Healthy Start of Santa Rosa County; Women, Infant and Children Program (WIC); Center for Total Women’s Health; Community Drug and Alcohol Council; West Florida Area Health Education Center; Covenant Hospice; Safe Haven; Santa Rosa County School District; Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office; Santa Rosa County School Health Program; Santa Rosa Pediatrics; University of West Florida; Students Working Against Tobacco (SWAT) and AIDS Healthcare Foundation. Any interested citizens or community groups are encouraged to attend the meeting and join the coalition.   

Cigarette waste has many detrimental effects on our environment. Check out these facts from Tobacco Free Florida:

• Cigarette filters     are made from cellulose acetate, a plastic which is technically     biodegradable. However, cigarette butts only biodegrade under conditions     described by researchers as “severe biological circumstances,”     such as when filters end up in sewage. Even in these conditions, cellulose     acetate filters are slow to disappear with the most optimistic estimate at     nine months.
• In a recent     laboratory study, one cigarette butt soaked in a liter of water killed     half of the fish exposed.
• An economic study     based on a litter audit in San       Francisco, found that the annual tobacco litter     cleanup cost to be more than $5.6 million.
• Cigarette butts     discarded in parks, along sidewalks, and in street gutters miles from the     coast, inevitably make their way through storm drains, creeks and rivers     to the beach and ocean leaking dangerous chemicals into our watershed.

For more information on the Santa Rosa County Tobacco Free Coalition, please contact Dennis Bratten at (850) 983-5200, ext.142