MPAAT Awards Eleven Grants for Research
and Community Secondhand Smoke Initiatives

MINNEAPOLIS, May 19 /PR Newswire/ -- The Board of Directors of the Minnesota Partnership for Action Against Tobacco (MPAAT) approved grants for new research and to assist the work of community organizations in support of local smoke-free initiatives. MPAAT will award up to $3.1 million in 2005 to researchers and community groups through these grants.

"The grants awarded by the Board reflect MPAAT's vision to eliminate the harm caused by tobacco in Minnesota," said Michael Vekich, MPAAT Board Chair.

"MPAAT has made tremendous progress with our stop-smoking programs - any Minnesota adult who wants to quit using tobacco now has access to effective assistance," explained David Willoughby, MPAAT CEO. "But tobacco is a highly addictive substance, and no one strategy will eliminate the harm of tobacco. That's why the experts, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, recommend implementing comprehensive strategies to address tobacco's harms, including individual stop-smoking services, research and community-based initiatives to reduce exposure to secondhand smoke." As of 2004, MPAAT had awarded $9.1 million in stop-smoking grants, $6.7 million in research grants, $3.6 million in grants to support local smoke-free initiatives and $1 million in grants to reduce the harm of tobacco in diverse communities.

The Requests for Proposals for these grants were announced by MPAAT in September 2004 and January 2005. Grant applications passed through a rigorous independent review process before being submitted to the MPAAT Board for approval.

"Each year tobacco use causes more than 5,600 deaths in Minnesota and is estimated to cost $2 billion in health care costs and $1 billion in lost productivity costs," said Vekich. "The direct health care costs alone amount to almost $400 for every man, woman and child in the state. By implementing a comprehensive strategy to address tobacco use, MPAAT's programs will result in improved health and reduced health care costs for all Minnesotans."

MPAAT has been awarding competitive grants since its establishment by the Ramsey County District Court in 1998. The research grants will contribute to the body of scientific knowledge on tobacco-related issues and will help inform MPAAT's future work on reducing the harm of tobacco in Minnesota. The intervention grants will support local citizen participation efforts to protect workers and the public from the harm of secondhand smoke. Local organizations receiving funding will be able to strengthen local tobacco control coalitions, educate the public about the dangers of secondhand smoke and assess the community readiness for policy change.

Six research grants totaling more than $1.8 million were awarded to:

-- The University of Minnesota for The Efficacy of Proactive Personal Email Support as an Addition to Minnesota's quitplan.com Stop-smoking Website - This is a three-year research award not to exceed $517,500. The awardee will test modifications to MPAAT's stop-smoking interactive website, http://quitplan.com , to encourage return visits to the website and greater use of program features. This project is a cooperative effort with QuitNet.com, Inc.

-- The University of Minnesota for Smoking Cessation in Patients with Peripheral Artery Disease - This is a three-year research award not to exceed $445,838. The awardee will study the effectiveness of an intensive smoking-cessation program for patients with peripheral artery disease. The project will be undertaken as a partnership between the University of Minnesota's Division of Epidemiology and three Minnesota hospitals.

-- The Mayo Clinic Cancer Center for Enhancing Smoker Utilization of Minnesota Helpline Cessation Services through Support Persons - This is a three-year research award not to exceed $501,035. The awardee will study the effectiveness of training non-smokers to provide support to smokers in an effort to increase the proportion of smokers who initiate contact with the Minnesota QUITPLAN(SM) Helpline. The study is a collaboration with the QUITPLAN Helpline.

-- The Tobacco Law Center at the William Mitchell College of Law for Legal and Political Obstacles to Smoke-Free Regulation in Minnesota Multi- Jurisdictional Regions - This is a two-year research award not to exceed $115,000. The awardee will conduct a study describing the different political and legal environments within which local smoke- free ordinances were debated and/or passed, and will identify strategies that have been effective in different jurisdictions for implementing successful local smoke-free ordinances.

-- The Indigenous Peoples Task Force for Creating Healthier Policies in Minnesota Casinos - This is an 18-month research award not to exceed $128,513. The awardee will begin exploratory work on researching how American Indian tribes and communities outside of Minnesota have addressed the issue of secondhand smoke in casinos. Based on this research, the research team will assess whether, and how, American Indian communities in Minnesota may want to begin to address the issue themselves.

-- The Wilder Research Center and the African Assistance Program for A Study of Ways to Promote Smoking Cessation in West African Immigrant Communities in Minnesota - This is an 18-month research award not to exceed $129,849. The awardee will study tobacco use, behaviors, attitudes and treatment among Minnesota's African immigrants, a fast- growing group of immigrants predicted to have increasing smoking rates over the next several years, especially among youth. This project also includes researchers from the Mayo Clinic.

Five intervention grants totaling $1.3 million were awarded to:

-- CentraCare Health Foundation in St. Cloud - A one-year grant not to exceed $180,000 to support the Smoke-Free Communities Partnership, an initiative to engage community partners in working towards population- based smoke-free policies in St. Cloud and several surrounding communities.

-- Goodhue County Public Health Service in Red Wing - A one-year grant not to exceed $130,000 to support citizen participation efforts to build a coalition of partners that support smoke-free policies in Goodhue County.

-- Ramsey Medical Society, serving Ramsey, Dakota and Washington Counties - A one-year grant not to exceed $180,000 to support a physician-driven citizen participation effort to build a diverse coalition of strategic partners that support smoke-free policies in Dakota County.

-- Association for Nonsmokers - Minnesota in St. Paul - A one-year grant not to exceed $180,000 to support the Ramsey Tobacco Coalition, a broad partnership with the goal of passing a stronger county-wide smoke-free ordinance in Ramsey County.

-- Grassroots Solutions Inc. - statewide technical assistance provider - In March, MPAAT awarded a two-year grant not to exceed $600,000 to Grassroots Solutions to provide technical assistance to local communities interested in addressing secondhand smoke in their community through coalition building, community organizing and media advocacy.

MPAAT is an independent, non-profit organization that improves the health of Minnesotans by reducing the harm caused by tobacco. MPAAT serves Minnesota through its grant-making program, QUITPLAN(SM) stop-smoking services and statewide outreach activities. It is funded with three percent of the State's 1998 tobacco settlement.

For more information on the grants or QUITPLAN services, call 952-767-1400 or visit http://www.mpaat.org .

SOURCE Minnesota Partnership for Action Against Tobacco

05/19/2005 08:00 ET