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American Legacy Foundation® Celebrates Decade of Saving Lives
3/4/2009
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today the American Legacy Foundation, the national non-profit organization that created the award-winning national truth® youth smoking prevention campaign and has been a leader in grant-making, research and counter-marketing efforts aimed at saving lives from tobacco, celebrates its tenth anniversary.
As part of a year-long effort to commemorate its first decade, the Foundation today unveiled a new Web site, http://www.mylegacystory.com/ and is encouraging those impacted by the toll of tobacco to log on and share their stories and support the Foundation’s work to reduce the deadly toll of tobacco. Legacy was created as a result of the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement reached between 46 states, five territories and the tobacco industry.
In the decade since the settlement was reached, the landscape of tobacco use in America has changed dramatically. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, adult smoking rates are now below 20 percent and teen smoking rates are at their lowest point since at least 1991. Today, nearly 800 municipalities, 37 states and the District of Columbia have smoke-free laws in effect to protect non-smokers in public spaces, bars and restaurants according to the Americans for Non-Smokers Rights Foundation.
Legacy’s successes are just one part of the collective national effort to build a world where young people reject tobacco and anyone can quit. The Foundation’s grantees have implemented innovative programs in local communities. New research released last month found that truth® was directly responsible for keeping 450,000 teens from starting to smoke during its first four years (2000-2004) as well as saving between $1.9 and $5.4 billion in medical care costs to society.
The foundation’s tenth anniversary is an opportunity for the entire tobacco control community, as well as those who have been touched by the social movement against tobacco, to join together in celebration of the progress that has been made and to continue thoughtful discussions about the next decade and beyond in tobacco prevention and cessation. “We are grateful to all our colleagues in tobacco control and public health for the remarkable achievements of the past decade and look forward to working closely with them to save even more lives in the ten years to come,” said the Foundation’s president and CEO, Cheryl G. Healton, DrPH.
The American Legacy Foundation® is dedicated to building a world where young people reject tobacco and anyone can quit. Located in Washington, D.C., the foundation develops programs that address the health effects of tobacco use, especially among vulnerable populations disproportionately affected by the toll of tobacco, through grants, technical assistance and training, partnerships, youth activism, and counter-marketing and grassroots marketing campaigns. The Foundation’s programs include truth®, a national youth smoking prevention campaign that has been cited as contributing to significant declines in youth smoking; EX®, an innovative public health program designed to speak to smokers in their own language and change the way they approach quitting; research initiatives exploring the causes, consequences and approaches to reducing tobacco use; and a nationally-renowned program of outreach to priority populations. The American Legacy Foundation was created as a result of the November 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) reached between attorneys general from 46 states, five U.S. territories and the tobacco industry. Visit http://www.americanlegacy.org.
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Contact: Julia Cartwright, 202-454-5596, jcartwright@americanlegacy.org