Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi cites decline in youth smoking

By By Steve Gillespie / staff writer
Feb. 15, 2004
Sharon Garrison, public relations manager for The Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi, says her organization is succeeding with its mission to change the state's tobacco culture.
With money from the state's tobacco fund, the partnership provides tobacco prevention programs to schools and after-school programs. It also offers cessation programs for smokers.
The partnership started as a pilot program in 1997 and was fully implemented in 1999. Since then, Garrison said, surveys by the Mississippi State Department of Health show the number of youths who smoke has declined sharply.
Garrison said 28,000 fewer high school and middle school students smoked in 2002 than smoked in 1999.
She also said that according to the Centers for Disease Control, for every 1,000 youths kept from smoking, future health care costs in the state decline by about $12 million.
Based on those figures, the National Center for Tobacco-Free Kids states that programs from The Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi have saved Mississippi more than $336 million in future health care costs.
The partnership also is expanding its efforts to help people quit smoking.