Second-hand smoke efforts to intensify

BISMARCK — A group of public health units in the state is planning to boost its efforts to educate the public about second-hand smoke, spending more money on a campaign already known for sponsoring television ads.

The revamped campaign, called BreatheND, will be announced Monday in Fargo and Bismarck by the health units’ Public Education on Tobacco Task Force, said Vicki Voldal Rosenau, Barnes County tobacco prevention coordinator.

She said the efforts are in recognition that affecting public opinion about second-hand smoke “can’t be done without a serious media campaign.”

One facet of the new campaign is a Web site, www.breatheND.com, at which people can read information about the dangers of second-hand smoke.

The task force is not allowed to propose or support city ordinances or state laws on smoking restrictions because its members’ units are funded with public dollars, Rosenau said. So, while its members favor strict indoor smoking restrictions such as the ones recently passed in Fargo and West Fargo, they can’t get involved in such efforts.

The health units’ funds come from the tobacco settlement money the state gets from the multi-state settlement North Dakota helped negotiate 10 years ago. For the past few years, the health units have pooled some of their funds to buy television ads, including one in which a non-smoking Canadian waitress tells of getting lung cancer from breathing second-hand smoke at her job.

Cole works for Forum

Communications Co., which

owns The Jamestown Sun

Tags: secondhand, smoke, education, health