Through With Chew Week is a special week dedicated to raising awareness about the dangers of smokeless tobacco. The national observance is each February and focuses on helping Oklahomans who want to quit smokeless tobacco through FREE help from the Oklahoma Tobacco Helpline, a program of TSET.
The Helpline offers FREE quit coaching, text and email support, patches, gum or lozenges, and more. Funding is primarily provided by TSET, in partnership with the Oklahoma State Department of Health, Oklahoma Health Care Authority, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Read more.
Sharon Howard, program manager for the TSET Healthy Incentive Program for Districts and Schools, retired this month. Sharon started work at TSET in 2012 and has become well known to teachers and school administrators from across the state.
Sharon's work was vital to launching and building the Healthy Incentive Grant program for Districts and Schools. She spent many hours working with school officials to support wellness policies to benefit students, faculty and staff, and guided officials through the application process for grants. Her work can be seen in numerous sets of playground equipment, walking tracks, active learning labs, PE equipment and more at schools across the state.
Sharon is a registered nurse who came to TSET with over 35 years of experience in hospital, outpatient and education settings. She was previously the health services coordinator for Norman Public Schools, the senior nurse at Moore Public Schools and clinic manager for pediatric gastroenterology at Children’s Hospital. Sharon is a past-president of the School Nurse Organization of Oklahoma, and was named Oklahoma School Nurse Administrator of the Year in 2011.
While Sharon is enjoying retirement with her husband at their tiny home near Lake of the Arbuckles, work on the TSET Healthy Incentive Grants for Schools will be taken up by TSET's new program officer, Laura Matlock. Learn more about Laura in next month's newsletter.
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Dr. Adam Alexander, a researcher at the TSET Health Promotion Research Center at Stephenson Cancer Center, was in the news this month speaking about the upcoming Trinity Project. That study will examine how social unrest and the COVID-19 pandemic have affected the health of African Americans in Oklahoma.
“I’m expecting to see changes in dietary quality. I expect people to make poorer food choices. I’m also expecting to see higher levels of consumption of alcohol, tobacco,” Alexander said.
Learn more.
 Julie Bisbee, TSET executive director, presented on tobacco preemption in Oklahoma for Action on Smoking & Health in January.
In January, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) hosted presentations from advocates worldwide about Big Tobacco's interference and manipulation in legislation and advertising. Invited presenters included TSET Executive Director Julie Bisbee.
"Fighting Big Tobacco takes ongoing research, daily action, regular trainings and a dedicated team of advocates," Bisbee said. "TSET and ASH are not anti-smoker --- we are anti-tobacco. It is an honor to be part of ASH, a worldwide leader that advocates for innovative legal and policy measure to end the global tobacco epidemic."
View resources from the webinar and learn more at Tobacco Stops With Me, a program of TSET.
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