Tobacco Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Student Behavior, Phone, Tobacco, Focus Of House Subcommittee

The House of Delegates Public Education Subcommittee started the week looking at two ways to help students focus and behave, as well as bills to change accountability for state school entities.

Student conduct and discipline has been a focus of legislative activity for the past several years. The House of Delegates Public Education Subcommittee started the week looking at two ways to help students focus and behave, as well as bills to change accountability for state school entities.

House Bill 2003 would limit the use of cell phones and other devices in classrooms. It is one of the bills introduced this year by House Speaker Roger Hanshaw on behalf of Gov. Patrick Morrisey.

Katie Franklin, deputy general counsel to the governor, told the subcommittee Monday evening that under the bill, cell phones and other devices like headphones or earbuds cannot be seen, heard, or in use, while school is in session.

“It also empowers teachers to take control of their classrooms and to once again become the object of their students’ attention,” she said. “This bill allows both teachers and children to focus on class instead of fighting against the never ending diversions of modern life.”

Across the country, close to a dozen states have either implemented or considered implementing legislation to restrict phone usage in schools. That includes neighboring states Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia, which have all taken steps to restrict phone usage in schools in the past year.

At least three West Virginia counties implemented device restrictions for the current academic year.

Del. Jeffrey Stephens, R-Marshall, asked about a district’s ability to go further than what is outlined in the bill.

“Would schools be able to have stricter rules than what are provided in the bill?” Stephens asked.

“I believe so,” Franklin said. “The point of having the legislative rules and the additional policies is to allow for them to do that. This should be seen as a floor for schools and not as a ceiling.”

House Education Chair Del. Joe Ellington, R-Mercer, pointed out that the West Virginia Board of Education already promulgated their own policy to limit the use of personal electronic devices in schools, which is open to public comment until March 20.

“This bill goes a little further in what that looks like and how that works again, to create a little more of a foundation and to give it further weight of a codified statute,” Franklin said.

House Bill 2003 does allow for exceptions to comply with the the Americans with Disabilities Act or the West Virginia Human Rights Act, and Tuesday afternoon the sub-committee voted to advance the bill to the House Education Committee.

Another bill relating to student conduct on school grounds, House Bill 3099, would authorize law enforcement to issue citations to students caught using nicotine or tobacco products on school property or during school activities.

Del. Joe Statler, R-Monongalia, and the bill’s sponsor, said Monday one of the counties he represents had specifically requested an enforcement mechanism for existing rules.

“They clearly state that they have a policy in place to work with these issues, but they feel that vaping is up in the schools,” he said. “They need this piece of legislation in order, if they have to go to that route, that they would be able to give a citation to those students after multiple times of trying to work with them to get them to basically not use (tobacco) which are not allowed to in the schools.”

The Public Education Subcommittee voted Tuesday to advance the bill to the House Education Committee.

Other Business

The subcommittee also took up some bills with more administrative and legal implications for the state’s schools.

House Bill 2897 would require the Legislative Auditor or Post Audit Division to conduct periodic performance audits of the West Virginia Department of Education. The West Virginia Board of Education is, per code, one of the only government entities that can create its own policies without legislative approval.

Reviews done by the Legislative Auditor on cabinet level departments and regulatory boards were previously on a cyclical and on annual schedule. But with the passage of Senate Bill 687 last year, these reviews are now made at the discretion of the Speaker of the House, the Senate President and by recommendations from the Joint Standing Committee on Government Organization.

The governor pointed to audits of state agencies and departments as key to “repurposing and rightsizing” government during his inaugural address.

Justin Robinson, director of the Legislative Post Audit Division, clarified to lawmakers that his office does not conduct financial audits.

“Traditionally, we perform performance audits under the generally accepted government auditing standards issued by the United States Government Accountability Office,” he said. “And through those standards, we can effectuate many of the financial implications that I discussed with Chairman Ellington earlier, given the intent of this bill to ensure that funding by the districts and the department overall is utilized in an efficient, effective and economical manner.”

Robinson also warned that the December 1 deadline for an initial audit report wouldn’t allow for “deep dive audits on any particular in-depth subject matter.” Instead, he said his office could provide an initial report by that date.

The Public Education Subcommittee voted Tuesday to advance the bill to the House Education Committee.

House Bill 2973 directly addresses two of the legal issues that so significantly impacted state football and volleyball playoffs last year.

Del. Marty Gearheart, R-Mercer, is one of the bill’s co-sponsors. He explained that the bill would make the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission (WVSSAC) subject to lawsuit in the same manner as a government agency. Those wishing to sue the WVSSAC would now need to provide a 30 day notice and would be required to file that suit in Kanawha County.

Lawsuits against the WVSSAC over school seeding in volleyball and football playoffs were filed in Hardy, Wood and Mercer county circuit courts last November, requiring the intervention of the state supreme court. The lawsuits were also filed just days before playoffs were set to begin.

“This would eliminate that strategy,” Gearheart said. “The reality is that the WVSSAC has to make a variety of decisions, some of which may not be popular and may generate lawsuits. But by delaying action until that point in time, it caused a lot of damage….Filing it in Kanawha County also puts it in the position to make it somewhat apolitical.”

The Public Education Subcommittee voted Tuesday to advance the bill to the House Education Committee.

Discussing Health Implications From W.Va.’s Nicotine Problem

On Wednesday, the American Lung Association released its annual “State of Tobacco Control” report and West Virginia again earned failing grades. Health reporter Emily Rice spoke with Dr. Robert Herron, a general thoracic surgeon at WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital about the health implications of long-term tobacco use.

The transcript below has been lightly edited for clarity.

Herron: My name is Dr Robert Herron. I’m a general thoracic surgeon at West Virginia University Medicine Wheeling Hospital. My primary area of practice is surgical treatment of thoracic diseases, namely lung pathologies like lung cancer, as well as esophageal diseases and anything within the chest. I’m also the director of our low dose CT program for lung cancer screening at Wheeling hospital.

Rice: You are on the ground with this report card here. This is my third year covering the report card. Our grades pretty much remain the same, and the recommendations also kind of remain the same. But I’m interested to hear from your perspective, what you think? Is it a societal mindset that needs to change, and you know, how could we go about that?

Herron: As you alluded to, unfortunately, on the state of tobacco control, West Virginia, which is a state that I grew up in, have family and friends here, we scored, you know, very low. I mean, they graded us on various categories, and our letter grades were all in the D to F range. So to answer your question, I think it’s a lot of different factors. Is it a societal you know? Yeah. I mean, smoking, smoking has been a long standing part, not necessarily, of the culture, but it but it’s been somewhat ingrained, not just in West Virginia, but, you know, a lot of states in the country, Appalachia seems to be more affected. And I think to kind of break the mold. The issue that we see a lot is younger generations. You know, their parents smoked, their grandparents smoked years prior. It’s, it’s just kind of hard to break that mold, unfortunately.

Rice: Absolutely so it definitely, is a bit of a generational thing here. So when we get down to it, and prevention and cessation, I guess, let’s talk about what you’re seeing when patients come to you. What’s the cost of tobacco use in a healthcare sense when they come to you?

Herron: Yeah so, you know, being a thoracic surgeon, a lot, a big part of a practice, not just of my practice, but any practitioner within this, specially a lot of the lung pathologies. You know, how we get lung cancer, it puts us at risk is is smoking. So a lot of the patients that come to see me with a lung nodule, whether it be found incidentally or through our low dose CT program have, have, the vast majority, have a history of prolonged and substantial smoking. So the burden in place is not just on increased risk of lung cancer, but the cardiovascular effects and the the underlying, you know, lung effects with emphysema and COPD, that not only you know if the if smoking leads to a process like lung cancer. Well, how do we best treat it based on their health and the smoking you know, can affect their health in a lot of ways, from a cardiovascular standpoint or a lung function standpoint, which, in the most extreme cases, can limit the options we can offer that patient for treatment, i.e., surgery.

Rice: Are you seeing any changes with the increased rates of vaping? Obviously, teenagers aren’t going to be coming to you yet. You know you’re going to see them in 10, 20, years.

Herron: Correct.

Rice: Have there been any significant changes that you’ve noticed in the patients that you treat in the past few years?

Herron: In my anecdotal experience, you know, vaping is on the rise. We have a lot of patients, when I say young patients, I’ve had to operate on patients as, you know, as young as their late teens, early 20s, where it’s not necessarily for cancer, but they’ve never smoked cigarettes, but they vaped, that a lot of these patients will get collapsed lungs that require surgical intervention to fix. And again, anecdotal experience, but these cases kind of stick out because they’re, they’re younger, and a lot of the lungs, and I have this discussion with the patients are, you know, you get in there surgically, you know, you’re obviously looking at the lungs. And all, you know, a lot of those lungs look like the patients that have, you know, smoked for a prolonged period. And I take care of, you know, on the on the back side, like a lung cancer. And I, I always tell these patients that. So vaping is fairly new, so I think it’s going to be, you know, it’s going to take years for all this to kind of, you know, settle out, and this data to settle out. But, you know, I would be surprised if we don’t find coming years that that vaping is is just as bad, if not worse. Well, I always tell my patients, young or old, that the best kind of smoking is, is no smoking.

Rice: Alright, so you know, when it comes to our grades, you know, the main recommendation from the American Lung Association is for our lawmakers to invest in cessation and prevention efforts, because they’re trying to stop it before it even starts. I am very well aware that you’re a physician and not a lawmaker, but I’m sitting here looking at the fiscal note in the ALA report, the cost that tobacco has on West Virginia. You know what it does to the workforce? Could you speak to that a little bit?

Herron: A lot of, a lot of jobs, especially in West Virginia coal miners, and you need good lung function to for the manual labor jobs. So it does take a toll. But, yeah, I mean, lawmakers, I, you know, my, my biggest inclination is that, you know, this is, these have got to be kind of ground up programs, you know, start early ages with funding for school education programs that reach out to young kids as early as possible, to you know, to plant this that smoking, smoking is not, not good for you. And I think that’s approach is very important for for education. I think education is, is, is, is the, probably the best, strongest foundation for this type of undertaking, in my opinion.

Rice: Do you run across that with your patients? Do they come in with these conditions, and they’re like, ‘Well, nobody ever told me that.’ Does that happen?

Herron: Nowadays, everyone knows that smoking, smoking is bad for you. I mean, but a lot of the issue is they start younger, and they may not have known, but once you start smoking, it’s very addictive. A lot of, if not all my patients who smoke, they want to quit, but it’s just physically and mentally it’s so difficult because of the addictive properties that challenge can be overcome. I mean, we have cessation programs through debut that are very effective. But despite all that, it’s a very tall mountain to climb. So the best approach is if, I mean, easier said than done, but if you never pick them up, then never, never start, then it’s then, obviously that’s a lot, lot easier.

State Scores Low On Smoking Cessation And Researching The East Palestine Derailment, This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, West Virginia’s tobacco use and prevention efforts again earned failing grades on an assessment from the American Lung Association, and researchers look at the effects of the East Palestine derailment.

On this West Virginia Morning, the American Lung Association has released its annual “State of Tobacco Control” report and West Virginia again earned failing grades. Health reporter Emily Rice spoke with Dr. Robert Heron, a General Thoracic Surgeon at WVU Hospital about the health implications of long-term tobacco use.

And two years since a Norfolk Southern train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, and industrial chemicals contaminated the community and made hundreds of residents sick. Many have since tried to put this incident behind them, but some still worry about future health impacts. The Allegheny Front’s Julie Grant reports how researchers are stepping in.

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University and Marshall University School of Journalism and Mass Communications.

Maria Young produced this episode.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning

Advocates Call For Tobacco Prevention Funding Under New Administration

Advocates are hopeful that Governor Patrick Morrisey will include funding for tobacco prevention and cessation programs in his upcoming budget proposal.

West Virginia invests less than 1% of its earnings from tobacco settlement money into smoking prevention and cessation programs.

Advocates are calling on Gov. Patrick Morrisey to allot settlement funds he won as the state’s attorney general from JUUL Labs, an e-cigarette company, in his upcoming 6-year proposed budget, which he said he will release before the 2025 legislative session.

Doug Hogan, the government relations director for the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Action Network said the state spends approximately $451,000 on tobacco prevention efforts, less than any state spends on similar programs.

“West Virginia invests the least of any state in the country when it comes to prevention, yet we have the highest usage rates for our youth and our adults,” Hogan said.

His group is calling on Morrisey to invest $4.5 million in fact-based tobacco control programs this year.

According to the American Lung Association, 21% of West Virginia adults are smokers, and 27% of high school students – the highest rate in the nation. Tobacco use is the leading cause of death in the state at more than 4,200 residents a year.

Hogan said he’s hopeful the funding will be allocated following conversations with Morrisey about the settlement and West Virginia’s tobacco problem.

“Governor Morrissey has said that he wants those Juul settlement funds to be used for the purpose that they were intended for, and we are 100 percent supportive of that, because we believe those funds were intended for youth prevention programs,” Hogan said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that West Virginia spend $24.7 million annually to combat the health and economic consequences of tobacco use.

Experts Say W.Va. Must Spend More On Tobacco Prevention

West Virginia invests less than one percent of its earnings from tobacco settlement money in prevention and cessation programs yet a new report shows lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in West Virginia.

West Virginia invests less than one percent of its earnings from tobacco settlement money in prevention and cessation programs. A new report on lung cancer shows the disease is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in West Virginia. Advocates say lawmakers must make funding tobacco prevention a priority for the state’s health outcomes to improve.

The American Lung Association (ALA) released its seventh annual “State of Lung Cancer” report in November for Lung Cancer Awareness Month.

The 2024 report found West Virginia ranks 49th among all states in rates of new lung cancer cases, placing the state in the bottom tier of the report.

Even that failing grade is an improvement for the state. Over the last five years, the rate of new cases of lung cancer in West Virginia improved by 12 percent, down from 88 percent in 2019.

Also in the last five years, West Virginia has seen a 34 percent improvement in lung cancer survival rates.

However, the report also found West Virginia ranks worst in the nation for adult smoking with 21 percent of all adults currently smoking.

West Virginia receives more than $232.6 million in tobacco revenue annually from tobacco settlement payments and taxes combined but invests less than one percent of that total, about $450,000, in tobacco prevention and cessation programs.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that West Virginia spend $24.7 million annually to combat the health and economic consequences of tobacco use.

The report highlights how the toll of lung cancer varies by state and examines key indicators like new cases, survival, early diagnosis, surgical treatment, lack of treatment, screening rates and insurance coverage of comprehensive biomarker testing.

Elizabeth Hensil is the ALA’s advocacy director for Pennsylvania and West Virginia, two states with very different health outcomes.

“One of the big things, big differences between Pennsylvania and West Virginia is the amount of money that the state invests in tobacco prevention and control,” Hensil said. “West Virginia spends some of the least amount of money in the country.”

Hensil said that small prevention investment is reflected in the high number of smokers in the state.

In West Virginia, 76.5 of 100,000 people were diagnosed with lung cancer in the last year.

“There have been really great programs in the past in West Virginia on a regional basis, with people doing education, and, you know, boots on the ground, and that money was taken away about five years ago, I think, and that lack of education in a rural state is detrimental to the health of the citizens,” Hensil said.

Hensil emphasizes the importance of education and prevention before cessation to reduce smoking rates.

Dr. Robert Herron is a general thoracic surgeon at West Virginia University’s Wheeling Hospital. He agrees that education is vital to solving West Virginia’s tobacco problem and slowing rates of lung cancer.

“I think if you have to put it in one word, it’d be education,” Herron said. “So yeah, smoking is bad for you, at least the lung cancer, and not only that, but peripheral vascular disease and other types of primary cancers, namely, pancreatic, esophageal.”

Herron says improvements to West Virginia’s screening rates could quell the rise of lung cancer.

“Between stages one and two, I mean, you’re talking about a 25 to 30 percent discrepancy in prognosis,” Herron said. “For example, stage one lung cancers, you can tell a patient you have about an 80, 85 percent chance of five year survival, versus a stage two, where you’re dropping into the 30 and 40 percent range. So finding it early is, is the main thing, I think, if we’re going to, if we’re going to put a put a dent in improving this thing.”

Only 13.5 percent of high-risk individuals in West Virginia are currently getting screened, which is much lower than the national average of 16 percent.

“We should be at the same rates as people getting mammograms and colonoscopies and things like that,” Hensil said. “So it’s just really important that people that are at high risk tell their doctors, I want to be screened and then they can have that done.”

Hensil says lung cancer cases in West Virginia are stable but remain high. She suggests that West Virginia should pass legislation to require insurance companies to cover biomarker testing for cancer patients.

“It would really help the outcomes of people with cancer in West Virginia,” Hensil said. “So that’s one thing Pennsylvania did, actually just passed that in our last legislative session, and another thing that’s just really so important. And this goes back to, you know, the education is lung cancer screenings.”

Lung cancer screenings involve a low-dose CT scan to detect early signs of the disease. Hensil says health insurance covers lung cancer screening for high-risk individuals 50 years and older.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, defines a high-risk individual as someone with a medical condition or risk factor that increases their chance of severe illness or complications.

Hensil encourages people at high risk to discuss screening with their doctors and emphasizes the need for increased awareness and funding.

“If we can’t increase the funding for education, if we can’t get the biomarker testing covered by insurance in West Virginia, if nothing else already out there is lung cancer screening,” Hensil said.

The West Virginia Division of Tobacco Prevention operates a Tobacco Quit Line, where callers can get information, advice, support and referrals for resources.

The West Virginia Tobacco Quitline is 1-877-966-8784.

Election Coverage From Students And Regional Tobacco Production Declines, This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, Marshall University’s campus TV studio will be the election day hub for a nationwide broadcasting network of collegiate perspectives, and the tobacco industry in Kentucky – where there were once well over 100,000 farms growing the crop – now has just under a thousand.

On this West Virginia Morning, Marshall University’s campus TV studio will be the election day hub for a nationwide broadcasting network of collegiate perspectives on the presidential race and issues facing many first-time voters.

Also, the tobacco industry is still feeling the impacts of a reform signed into law by former President George W. Bush. Lily Burris with WKMS reports that in Kentucky – where there were once well over 100,000 farms growing the crop – now there’s just under a thousand.

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University and Marshall University School of Journalism and Mass Communications.

Maria Young produced this episode.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning