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—New Tobacco-Free Policy for Catholic
Charities of Steuben—
—Smoke-Free Multi-Unit Housing—
August 2014 Volume 3, Issue 8
A Closer Lo k
In July, Catholic Charities of Steuben adopted
a new Tobacco-Free Outdoor (TFO) policy
that made all of its facilities completely to-
bacco free. This will ensure that all of their
facilities are meeting OASAS tobacco regula-
tions. The Southern Tier Tobacco Aware-
ness Coalition (STTAC) was able to provide
free signage for Catholic Charities to help
them with compliance of their new policy.
STTAC has been helping businesses and mu-
nicipalities to develop tobacco-free worksite
and tobacco-free entryway policies for years!
If your business or municipality is interested
in creating or even just getting more informa-
tion on how to create a new tobacco-free
policy for your worksite,
please contact STTAC by
phone at 937-9922 or
737-2858 or by email
*STTAC can provide
FREE Tobacco-free
signage for your work-
site with the develop-
ment of a new policy
while supplies last!
Inside This Issue:
New Tobacco-Free Policy for
Catholic Charities of Steuben
1
Smoke-Free Multi-Unit
Housing 1
Albany County’s New
Tobacco-Free Pharmacy Law 2
Reality Check is Looking
for Youth
2
Community Updates &
Events
3
STTAC is excited about one of its new ini-
tiatives: to provide technical assistance such
as policy development, education, resources,
and free signage while supplies last, to land-
lords and housing authorities. This is sub-
stantial when you consider that there is no
safe level of exposure of secondhand-smoke
according to the Surgeon General.
It is also important to note that a no-
smoking policy does not exclude smokers; it
protects the health of all residents from
harmful secondhand smoke. Just as you can
restrict loud noise in your rentals, you can
also have a no-smoking rule for individual
units, common areas and even outdoors. A
no-smoking policy requires smokers to
smoke outdoors in areas specified in the
lease. In fact, the U.S Department of Hous-
ing and Urban Development (HUD) en-
courages no-smoking policies.
As of April 2014, 446 public housing au-
thorities throughout the country and at least
19 in New York have adopted no-smoking
policies for some or all of their units. For
more information or a tool kit for Housing
Authorities you can visit: http://
www.smokefreehousingny.org/landlords/
or contact us at STTAC.
* Contact STTAC and get FREE
signage for your worksite when
you develop a new tobacco-free
grounds or entryway policy for
your business, while supplies last!
a healthy bottom line
STTAC Staff:
Stacy Hills, MS, MCHES
STTAC Director
Sarah Robbins, BS
Reality Check Coordinator
Teresa Matterazzo, MS
Community Engagement
Coordinator
Patty O’Connell, AAS
Program Assistant
—Albany County’s New Tobacco-Free
Pharmacy Law—
—Reality Check is Looking for Youth!—
On Monday August 11, 2014 Albany County
Legislators voted and approved a new law that
will ban the sale of tobacco products in stores
that have a pharmacy. The new law is set to
take effect on March 1, 2015 pending the
County Executives signature. Only the
County Executive has the power to veto this
law and will hold a hearing on September 3,
2014 prior to signing this new law into effect.
This law will be the first Pharmacy ban in
NYS, however the first ban in the US came
from San Francisco in 2008 and since then
over 100 communities in Massachusetts have
enacted similar policies/laws. These types of
laws are beneficial to the public as they reduce
the number of stores that sell tobacco which
makes prevention and cessation efforts more
effective by decreasing social acceptability and
changing the norm.
Why should pharmacies be tobacco-Free?
Tobacco sales in pharmacies raises ethical
questions since tobacco is the only con-
sumer product that, when used as in-
tended, will kill at least one half of its
long term users.
There is overwhelming public support
for not selling tobacco in pharmacies.
The majority of pharmacist support to-
bacco-free pharmacies and in 2009 the
Pharmacist Society of the State of NY
passed a resolution supporting banning
the sale of tobacco in pharmacies.
Currently 52% of all pharmacies in New
York still sell tobacco products.
It is time to end tobacco sales at pharma-
cies in New York State.
For more information about Tobacco-Free
pharmacies or to view a list of other munici-
palities that have enacted similar laws/policies
please visit: tobaccofreenys.org.
STTAC is excited to now have Reality Check
as a part of our Coalition. Our new Reality
Check Coordinator, Sarah Robbins, will be
creating and recruiting youth in Chemung,
Schuyler and Steuben Counties. Sarah will be
recruiting youth age 13-18 for each of her 3
Reality Check groups.
So, what is Reality Check?
REALITY CHECK is a teen led, adult sup-
ported program working across New York
State.
REALITY CHECK aims to expose the ma-
nipulative and deceptive marketing tactics of
the tobacco industry. The tobacco industry
actively exploits and markets a deadly and
addictive product that is enticing to youth.
REALITY CHECK strives to produce change
in our communities through grassroots educa-
tion, mobilization, political education and
media campaigns.
REALITY CHECK stands for being more
than a replacement for the 1200 customers Big
Tobacco loses daily in the United States alone.
REALITY CHECK wants big tobacco to
know that WE WON’T BE BOUGHT.
For more information about Reality Check
you can visit www.realitycheckofny.org or
www.sttac.org. To contact Sarah Robbins call
607-737-2028 ext.73480 or email sarahrob-
The Southern Tier Tobacco
Awareness Coalition (STTAC)
seeks to build healthier communi-
ties through tobacco free living in
Chemung, Schuyler & Steuben,
NY.
STTAC has 4 initiatives:
To reduce the impact of retail
tobacco product marketing on
youth.
To increase the number To-
bacco Free Outdoor (TFO)
policies, which includes to-
bacco free worksites, parks,
vehicles, entryways and other
public outdoor areas.
To increase the number of
smoke-free multi-unit hous-
ing.
Eliminate pro-tobacco im-
agery from youth-rated mov-
ies and the internet.
Physical & Mailing Address:
103 Washington Street
Elmira, NY 14901
Elmira Office Phone number:
Main Line: 607-737-2858
Director: 737-2028 ext.73482
Reality Check Coordinator:
737-2028 ext.73480
Community Engagement
Coordinator: 737-2028
ext.73483
Program Assistant: 737-2028
ext.73481
We’re on the Web, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube! www.sttac.org www.facebook/sttac www.twitter/sttacny www.youtube/sttacny
Community Updates & Events:
On July 24, 2014 STTAC Coalition
members met and voted on a name
change at the request of the NYS Bureau
of Tobacco (STTAC’s funding source).
The Coalition members all voted in favor
of keeping the STTAC acronym the same
and changing the name from Southern
Tier Tobacco Awareness Community
Partnership back to its old name, which
was Southern Tier Tobacco Awareness
Coalition. With that we are excited to now
be Southern Tier Tobacco Awareness Coa-
lition (STTAC)!
STTAC is thrilled to announce that we
have hired 3 new staff members. The first
is Patty O’Connell our new Program As-
sistant. Patty comes to
STTAC with a wide
range of experience and
an enthusiasm for
STTAC initiatives.
Next is Sarah Robbins, our
new Reality Check Coordi-
nator who comes to STTAC
from Allegany Council on
Alcohol and Substance
Abuse, where she was their
Reality Check Program As-
sistant. STTAC is excited about Sarah’s
familiarity with Reality Check and ener-
gized ideas that she brings to the Coali-
tion.
Last but not least is
STTAC’s new Commu-
nity Engagement Coor-
dinator, Teresa Mat-
terazzo. Teresa’s outgo-
ing personality and
commitment to commu-
nity health make her a great attribute to
STTAC.
—Changes for STTAC—
STTAC Contact Information:
—Upcoming Tobacco Holidays for 2014-
The Great American Smokeout
(GASO) is a tobacco holiday that is
sponsored by the American Cancer
Society and falls on the third Thursday
of November every year. This years’
GASO is on 11/20/14. For more infor-
mation visit: http://goo.gl/xMrbLP
International week of Action is the
week preceding the Academy Awards.
The next International Week of Action
will take place the week of 2/16/14.
For more information you can visit:
http://goo.gl/auR10p
Kick Butts Day (KBD) is a tobacco
holiday sponsored by the Campaign for
Tobacco Free Kids. The next KBD
will be 3/18/15. For More information
please visit: http://goo.gl/umT8Qo
World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) is a
tobacco holiday sponsored by the work
health organization and always fall on
May 31, thus the next WNTD is
5/31/15
