(SAN DIEGO, February 26) - The Lavender Smoke-Free Project is a San Diego-based effort to rally the region's gay-lesbian-bisexual and transgendered community to the cause of lung health and freedom from tobacco. Starting in March, the Project will reach out to those who would like to quit smoking in the GLBT community and arrange for low-cost cessation classes. To publicize the effort, the Project is advertising and building a volunteer network of Community Outreach Teams to contact the GLBT community.
"We are seeking volunteers for these efforts," said Lavender Project coordinator Earl Storm. "Our first meeting is on Friday, March 9 at the American Lung Association office on 2750 Fourth Avenue. We are looking for smoking cessation facilitators as well as participants for the Community Ourtreach Teams." For more information call 619-297-3901, extension 140. The Project is training facilitators to conduct classes on quitting tobacco using materials that have been developed by the American Lung Association.
Most measures show that the GLBT community has higher-than-average rates of tobacco use. Nationwide estimates show that smoking rates in the GLBT community are 41 percent, versus smoking rates in the general population of 27 percent for men and 22 percent for women.
"We are independent-minded people," said Storm. "But for too long, too many of us have expressed our independence through smoking. This behavior contributes to poor health, social stigmatization, and benefits corporate tobacco interests. The Lavender Smoke-Free Project is determined to stay active with tobacco concerns in our community."
The Project is also sponsoring a women's softball team, the Butt-Kickers, in the America's Finest City Softball League (www.afcsl.com). Their first game will be on Sunday, March 4.
The Project is an outreach of the American Lung Association of San Diego and Imperial Counties, the community leader in lung disease prevention, research and education. The funding for the Lavender Smoke-Free Project is provided by the County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency, Office of Public Health, Tobacco Resource Program under Proposition 99, the California voter-approved Tobacco Tax Initiative (Grant #89-97926).
