Welcome to Tobacco-Free MSU!

MSU is now tobacco-free! Starting today, August 1, tobacco products are prohibited on all university property.  Going tobacco-free is a great step towards creating a healthier environment on campus! Check out the article from the Bozeman Daily Chronicle for more info.
http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/education/article_191ce552-d930-11e1-a6d1-0019bb2963f4.html

Please feel free to leave any comments, questions or observations below.

Preventing Tobacco Use Among Youth and Young Adults: A Report from the Surgeon General

Preventing Tobacco Use Among Youth and Young Adults: A Report from the Surgeon General

The Surgeon General's Report earlier this year describes the widespread problems caused by youth tobacco use. The tobacco industry is increasingly tailoring their marketing strategies towards youth, and rates of tobacco use in young people are no longer declining. Check out the full report to see just how big this epidemic has become!
http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/reports/preventing-youth-tobacco-use/factsheet.html

Sleep and Your Health interview with Dr. Sujatha Reddy

http://www.cnn.com/video/?hpt=hp_bn12#/video/health/2012/06/16/nr-reddy-sleep-health.cnn

Skin Cancer Awareness: Protect Your Skin (From the CDC)

Skin Cancer Awareness: Protect Your Skin

When you're having fun outdoors, it's easy to forget how important it is to protect yourself from the sun. Unprotected skin can be damaged by the sun's ultraviolet (UV) rays in as little as 15 minutes. Yet it can take up to 12 hours for skin to show the full effect of sun exposure.


Even if it's cool and cloudy, you still need protection. UV rays, not the temperature, do the damage. Clouds do not block UV rays; they filter them—and sometimes only slightly. Remember to plan ahead, and keep sun protection handy in your car, bag, or child's backpack.

Tan? There's no other way to say it—tanned skin is damaged skin. Any change in the color of your skin after time outside—whether sunburn or suntan—indicates damage from UV rays. Using a tanning bed causes damage to your skin, just like the sun.

Types of Skin Cancer

Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States. The two most common types, called basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas, are highly curable. But melanoma, the third most common skin cancer, is more dangerous.

Risk Factors

Anyone can get skin cancer, but some things put you at higher risk, like having—

•A lighter natural skin color.

•A personal history of skin cancer.

•A family history of melanoma.

•Exposure to the sun through work and play.

•A history of sunburns early in life.

•Skin that burns, freckles, reddens easily, or becomes painful in the sun.

•Blue or green eyes.

•Naturally blond or red hair.

How to Protect Yourself

Take precautions against sun exposure every day of the year, especially during midday hours (10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.), when UV rays are strongest and do the most damage. UV rays can reach you on cloudy days, and can reflect off of surfaces like water, cement, sand, and snow.

•Seek shade, especially during midday hours.

•Cover up with clothing to protect exposed skin.

•Wear a hat with a wide brim to shade the face, head, ears, and neck.

•Wear sunglasses that wrap around and block as close to 100% of both UVA and UVB rays as possible.

•Put on sunscreen with broad spectrum (UVA and UVB) protection and sun protective factor (SPF) 15 or higher.

•Avoid tanning beds and sunlamps. The UV rays from them are as dangerous as the UV rays from the sun.

How to Build a Better BBQ

By: Nancy Collins, PhD, RD, LDN

This summer, challenge yourself to build a better BBQ. You'll enjoy your meal even more, knowing that you are saving calories, reducing fat, adding fiber and vitamins to your diet just by making a few easy substitutions. By planning ahead, you can have a healthy, hearty BBQ that’s just as good as those you enjoyed as a kid.

Instead of Ground Beef Burger

try Portobello Mushroom Burger or Vegetable Burger

Saves calories and reduces fat. A four-ounce hamburger patty made with 10% fat ground beef contains 200 hundred calories and eleven grams of fat. A veggie burger, such as the All American Flamed Grilled Boca Burger, has only ninety calories and three grams of fat.

Instead of White Buns


try Whole Grain Buns

Adds fiber to your diet by trading a white bread bun for a whole wheat or multigrain bun. The white version has almost no fiber while the whole wheat variety contains about three grams.

Instead of Mayonnaise


try Mustard

Hold the mayo and choose mustard instead. One tablespoon of real mayonnaise packs one hundred calories – all from fat. Opt for light or reduced calorie mayo or, better yet, select mustard. The same amount of mustard has about fifteen calories. Mustard comes in a wide variety of zingy flavors, so it should be easy to find one you like.

Instead of Potato Chips and Sour Cream Sip


try Baked Chips and Salsa

Cuts fat, fat and more fat. Regular chips have 150 calories and ten grams of fat in one ounce (about fifteen chips). Baked chips have 120 calories and only two grams of fat. The dip will do you in, too. Every tablespoon of onion dip adds another two grams of fat.

Instead of Macaroni and Potato Salad


try Grilled Vegetables

Adds fiber and cuts fat grams. Simply slice veggies such as eggplant, zucchini, onions, and green peppers. Lightly coat them with olive oil and grill over medium heat until tender.

Instead of Ice Cream Bar


try Frozen Fruit Bar

Cool off with a frozen fruit bar to save calories and slash fat. Read the labels and look for bars containing real pureed fruit and fruit juice. The typical premium ice cream bar will top your meal with another two hundred calories, while the fruit bar satisfies with less than half that amount.

Instead of Soda


try Iced Green Tea

Adds antioxidants to your diet. A twelve-ounce can of soda has about ten teaspoons of sugar, which is bad for your teeth as well as your waistline.



For more great nutrition tips visit http://www.montana.edu/health/nutrition/

Preventing Tobacco Use Among Youth and Young Adults: A Report from the Surgeon General

For the newest Surgeon General's Report on Tobacco, please follow this link:
http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/reports/preventing-youth-tobacco-use/exec-summary.pdf

CDC publishes article on the public cost of excessive drinking

Excessive Drinking Costs U.S. $223.5 Billion
(From the CDC website: http://www.cdc.gov/Features/AlcoholConsumption/ )

A new study finds that excessive alcohol consumption cost the United States $223.5 billion in 2006, or about $1.90 per drink. By implementing effective community-based prevention strategies, we can reduce excessive alcohol consumption and its costs.

Excessive alcohol consumption is known to kill about 79,000 people in the United States each year, but a new study released by the CDC and The Lewin Group shows that it also has a huge impact on our wallets as well.

The cost of excessive alcohol consumption in the United States reached $223.5 billion in 2006 or about $1.90 per drink. Almost three-quarters of these costs were due to binge drinking. Binge drinking is defined as consuming four or more alcoholic beverages per occasion for women or five or more drinks per occasion for men, and is the most common form of excessive alcohol consumption in the United States.

The researchers found that the cost of excessive drinking was quite far-reaching, reflecting the effect this dangerous behavior has on many aspects of the drinker’s life and on the lives of those around them. The costs largely resulted from losses in workplace productivity (72% of the total cost), health care expenses for problems caused by excessive drinking (11% of total), law enforcement and other criminal justice expenses related to excessive alcohol consumption (9% of total), and motor vehicle crash costs from impaired driving (6% of the total).

The study analyzed national data from multiple sources to estimate the costs due to excessive drinking in 2006, the most recent year for which data were available. The study did not consider a number of other costs such as those because of pain and suffering among either the excessive drinker or others that were affected by their drinking, and thus may be an underestimate. Nevertheless, the researchers estimated that excessive drinking cost $746 for every man, woman, and child in the United States. in 2006.


What You Need to Know About Binge Drinking

•Binge drinking is reported by about 15% of U.S. adults.

•Binge drinking is most common among men, 18- to 34-year-olds, whites, and people with household incomes of $75,000 or more.

•Most binge drinkers are not alcohol dependent.

How Can We Prevent Excessive Alcohol Consumption and Reduce Its Economic Costs?

There are many evidence-based strategies that communities can use to prevent excessive drinking, including the following:

•Increasing alcohol excise taxes.

•Reducing alcohol outlet density.

•Reducing the days and hours of alcohol sales.

•Holding alcohol retailers liable for injuries or damage done by their intoxicated or underage customers.

By implementing these evidence-based strategies, we can reduce excessive alcohol consumption and the many health and social costs related to it.

More Information

http://www.cdc.gov/Features/AlcoholConsumption/