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TSET will celebrate 20 years of progress for the Oklahoma Tobacco Helpline at the Capitol on Thursday, Feb. 29. This milestone event will honor two decades of the Helpline impacting lives and providing effective tobacco cessation support across the state.
Since it was founded in 2003 as TSET’s flagship program, the Helpline has contributed to the lowest adult smoking rate in state history, providing free resources, support, and counseling services to thousands of individuals striving to quit smoking and tobacco use.
With more than 590,000 registrations to date, the Helpline has played a pivotal role in reducing tobacco-related disparities, saving lives, and fostering healthier communities across the state.
Learn more about the Oklahoma Tobacco Helpline HERE.
A live virtual panel hosted by TSET last month provided insight on the unique challenges associated with youth vaping and how TSET and its partners are fighting for a healthier future for all Oklahomans.
The panel, moderated by TSET Executive Director Julie Bisbee, included:
- Rhonda Baker, Oklahoma State Representative, Yukon
- Charlie Gagen, Director of Advocacy, American Lung Association
- Amy Cohn, Associate Professor at the TSET Health Promotion Research Center and the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine
- Dr. Erin Vogel, Assistant Professor at the TSET Health Promotion Research Center and the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
- Two youth participants with TSET’s Youth Action for Health Leadership (YAHL)
“To enact real change on this issue, it’s important to support policies, programs and resources that share a common goal of prioritizing the health and well-being of Oklahoma’s youth,” said Representative Rhonda Baker. “By educating our youth on the risks of vaping and exploring evidence-based solutions to lowering the vaping rates across the state, we can help build a healthier Oklahoma.”
A full recording of the panel discussion is available online on Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube.
Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis recently released a study showing smoking causes the brain to age prematurely, shrinking the brain and elevating the risk of Alzheimer's.
The findings, published in Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science, help explain why smokers are at high risk of age-related cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease.
The study also showed the association between smoking and brain volume depended on dose: the more packs a person smoked per day, the smaller his or her brain volume.
Yoonhoo Chang, a senior author of the report, put it this way: “smoking is a modifiable risk factor. There’s one thing you can change to stop aging your brain and putting yourself at increased risk of dementia, and that’s to quit smoking.”
Read more HERE.
The TSET Healthy Living Podcast is now every other month. On the months without a new release, we invite you to revisit earlier episodes you may have missed.
Episode 43 highlighted the 20th anniversary of the Oklahoma Tobacco Helpline. Hear from Michelle Lynch, president and CEO of the North American Quitline Consortium; Christin Kirchenbauer, Oklahoma Tobacco Helpline director, and three TSET staff members who share their own personal journeys to quitting tobacco.
"Oklahoma is one of the most exceptional success stories in the field of tobacco treatment and cessation in the country," said Lynch.
This episode is available on TSET's website and everywhere podcasts are listened to: Spotify, TuneIn, Stitcher, PodBean, Google Podcasts and Apple Podcasts.
TSET is staffed by a dedicated and passionate group of people. This month, we would like to introduce Dena Trosky.
Dena Trosky is a Partner Support Specialist for Community Programs at TSET. Prior to joining TSET, she served as an Undergraduate Admissions Counselor at Oklahoma City University and as a SAFE Program Specialist at DCCCA Inc. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Community/Public Health from the University of Central Oklahoma.
Read about the rest of the team HERE.
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