Dear Colleagues,

The release of the Surgeon General’s report titled Eliminating Tobacco-Related Disease and Death: Addressing Disparities, provides another great opportunity to illuminate the importance of our work together.

While the US has made progress in reducing commercial tobacco use in the overall population, advancements have not been equally distributed across all US groups. Disparities in commercial tobacco product use prevalence, exposure to secondhand smoke, exposure to marketing of commercial tobacco products and smoking-related health outcomes persist by race and ethnicity, level of income, level of education, sexual orientation, gender identity, type of occupation, geography, and behavioral health status.

Quitlines increase access to commercial tobacco use treatment and can reduce disparities. The infographic below and an executive summary provide key findings and highlights for the quitline community from the report. You can find these new resources on a NAQC webpage dedicated to the 35th tobacco-related Surgeon General’s Report. Please feel free to share the link with your colleagues and staff and check back to the webpage as more information will be added regularly.

Upcoming webinar: We will be hosting a webinar in January to review the major findings for quitlines from the report in more detail. Please send us any questions you would like to be addressed during the webinar.

Together, we will continue to advance key strategies and innovations nationwide, ensure continuous quality improvement and address tobacco-related disparities.

NAQC Staff