Building the Field and Diffusing Information
This project develops the pediatric workforce, clinical services, and policies essential to protecting the nation's children from secondhand tobacco smoke. It builds broad-based awareness, commitment, and skills within the pediatric community to support efforts to reduce children's exposure to secondhand smoke. This project provides a number of funding opportunities. Project investigators are at the AAP, the University of Rochester, and the New York University Richmond Center sites. For more information go to Funding Opportunites or contact Jonathan D. Klein, MD, MPH.

Document, Data, and Dataset Repository, and Analytic Project
This project utilizes a data set unique to the Richmond Center to address issues related to secondhand smoke exposure and youth smoking.  The Social Climate Survey for Tobacco Control (SCS TC) is a national telephone survey that collects comprehensive data about adults' attitudes and practices regarding tobacco control and children's exposure to secondhand smoke. The Survey was developed as a methodology to objectively measure the fundamental position of tobacco control in society and thereby provide a data collection system to monitor program impacts. The Survey includes items to measure progress toward intermediate objectives such as policy changes, changes in social norms, reductions in exposure of individuals to environmental tobacco smoke, and rejection of pro-tobacco influences. The results presented on the SCS website are based on annual, cross-sectional assessments of the social climate of tobacco control within the United States from 2000 through 2008.  

The Data Set project aims to increase the capacity of the SCS-TC to examine the relationship between tobacco control policies and desirable social climate indicators by 1) oversampling in geographic locations with strong and weak policies and 2) linking data from the American Nonsmokers’ Rights database of smoke-free policies.  The project furthermore seeks to examine the feasibility of mixed-mode administrations of the SCS-TC, in order to address the limitations of the current sampling frame of households with land lines. Changes in market penetration and number portability have led to fewer homes with land lines and decayed the geographic integrity of the sampling frame.  Project investigators are at the AAP, Mississippi State University, Dartmouth College, University of Rochester, Harvard Medical School, and at the New York University Richmond Center sites. For more information click here or contact Robert McMillen, PhD.

Dissemination of Best Practices to Reduce Secondhand Tobacco Smoke
The project begins nationwide dissemination of best practices to reduce secondhand smoke exposure of children, using an intensive state-by-state approach. Pediatric clinicians are trained in effective ways to counsel parents to change their behaviors so that children are not exposed to smoke. Partnerships are developed with AAP Chapter educational initiatives and state and local health department tobacco prevention and control activities. The project measures the spread and implementation of the project and assess short- and long-term outcomes. Project investigators are at the AAP, George Washington University, and University of Rochester Richmond Center sites. For more information click here or contact Dana Best, MD, MPH.

2009 Dissemination of Best Practices Smoke Free Homes Conference

2009 Dissemination of Best Practices Smoke Free Homes Conference Resources

Legal and Regulatory Issues Around Children's Exposure to Secondhand Smoke
This project synthesizes and provides vital information for the development and implementation of new policies and laws to reduce children's exposure to secondhand smoke in multiple settings. It involves child health care clinicians, childcare workers, lawyers, and key decision-makers at the local, state, federal, and institutional levels. Project investigators are at the AAP and at the Public Health Advocacy Institute/Tobacco Control Resource Center and Harvard Medical School Richmond Center sites. For more information click here or contact Mark Gottlieb, JD.

Rapid Quantitative Assessment of Secondhand Smoke Exposure for Clinical Pediatric Settings
This project develops or modifes a rapid, in-office test for secondhand smoke exposure of children with particular emphasis on children age 0-6 years. The test will be used to provide immediate feedback to parents regarding their child's secondhand smoke exposure. Once developed, this project will collaborate and partner with industry to make the test available commercially. Project investigators are at the AAP, George Washington University, and Children’s National Medical Center Richmond Center sites in collaboration with Neal Benowitz, MD, Director of the UCSF Bland Lane FAMRI Center of Excellence (formerly called the FAMRI Center of Excellence on Secondhand Smoke) at the University of California, San Francisco. For more information contact Dana Best, MD, MPH.

Messages for Motivation and Support for Behavior Change in Parent Smoking
This project designs a communication toolkit to teach pediatricians the most effective methods to influence parent smoking behaviors. By bringing together a multidisciplinary team that includes behavioral scientists, marketing experts, and creative art professionals that can view the problem from new perspectives, an effective set of communications tools will be designed. The focus will be on two phases of the communication process: motivating parents to address secondhand smoke exposure and supporting parents to reduce such exposure. Project investigators are at the AAP and at the Dartmouth College Richmond Center site. For more information contact Susanne Tanski, MD

Translational research projects
Several projects of the Richmond Center address the effectiveness of translating evidence into practice for tobacco prevention and control.

The Clinical Effort Against Secondhand Smoke Exposure (CEASE) national effectiveness PROS trial addresses parent secondhand smoke exposure using a theoretically-based intervention to improve adherence to evidence-based guidelines at the clinician level, facilitate change at the parent behavior level, and lead to implementation of systems changes at the practice level. Funded by NCI/NIDA and AHRQ.

The Smokebusters pilot adolescent cessation PROS trial addresses adolescent smoking cessation counseling by primary care pediatricians. Funded by NCI.

Development of a PediaLink educational module to provide on-line training to help pediatricians address the secondhand smoke exposure of children and parental smoking. Funded by FAMRI.

For more information on the above listed projects contact Jonathan Winickoff MD, MPH.

• FAMRI
• UCSF Bland Lane FAMRI Center of Excellence
• Weizmann Institute
• Johns Hopkins FAMRI Center of Excellence
• FAMRI-International Early Lung Cancer Action Program (IELCAP) Collaborative Network