Stratford's Tobacco Prevention and Control Plan  

Residents and members of Stratford organizations and businesses have been working together to develop a Comprehensive Tobacco Prevention and Control Plan for the town. They celebrated their achievement during a tobacco summit meeting held Thursday, March 6, 2003.   The goal of the planning process was to identify effective local interventions to help reduce tobacco use and protect residents from second-hand smoking and craft a blueprint to guide future actions.

According the most recent local health survey, 24% of Stratford adults smoke and 31% of all households in Stratford allow smoking inside their homes. Based on national data, the Stratford Health Department estimates that 1 out every 5 deaths in Stratford can be attributed to smoking.

The process of developing Stratford’s comprehensive plan included a group of diverse community members working together to review all the possibilities and coming up with a unified plan for what should be done in Stratford to address tobacco use. Although many organizations within Stratford have been tackling the tobacco problem for years, funding and timeframes have always been limited. Research shows that effective interventions need to be long standing and well funded to have a positive long-term impact on the goal of reducing tobacco use.
 
Stratford’s plan outlines the need for sustained, multi-component efforts such as enforcement of tobacco policies and education in the schools. The plan also identifies the resources necessary for implementing them.
 
You can download a free copy of Stratford’s Tobacco Prevention and Control Plan Summary Newsletter by clicking here:

Tobacco Newsletter

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