Prevention Matters

The Nevada ActionToQuit state summit was held in Reno on October 21, 2010. Led by the American Lung Association in Nevada, the summit brought together a diverse group of stakeholders to develop a state plan to reduce tobacco prevalence in Nevada by improving access to cessation treatments.

The summit opened with the State Health Officer as the keynote speaker to set the tone for the event. As noted by the keynote and other presenters, Nevada has a smoking prevalence rate of 21.5%. And of those smokers surveyed, 75% of them wish to quit. For every dollar Nevada spends on providing tobacco cessation treatments, it has an average potential return on investment of $1.31.

Panelists at the summit were all asked the following questions to help facilitate the formation of priority topics and inform the group strategic planning: 1) Please describe how your company or organization provides tobacco cessation services; 2) What impact has tobacco cessation had on your company, organization, or community?; 3) What are the barriers to people accessing tobacco cessation services?; 4) What other actions need to be taken to increase cessation in Nevada?; and 5) What do you think should be our priorities as we develop a statewide cessation plan for Nevada?

Following the presentations, participants at the summit prioritized areas and voted for the following workgroup topics: youth access, closing gaps in access, economic impact, educating officials, and expanding awareness of cessation. The 66 attendees choose which workgroup they wanted to participate in for the remainder of the afternoon and began to develop recommendations for the statewide plan, which will be available early in the new year.

The Nevada summit was a great first step to engage stakeholders in leading the way in increasing access to tobacco cessation treatment and ultimately decreasing tobacco use across the state.