Thursday, September 24, 2009

Flavored Tobacco




On September 22, 2009 a ban on cigarettes containing certain characterizing flavors went into effect. The ban, authorized by the new Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, is part of a national effort by FDA to reduce smoking in America.

FDA’s ban on candy and fruit-flavored cigarettes highlights the importance of reducing the number of children who start to smoke, and who become addicted to dangerous tobacco products. FDA is also examining options for regulating both menthol cigarettes and flavored tobacco products other than cigarettes.

According to the act

…a cigarette or any of its component parts (including the tobacco, filter, or paper) shall not contain, as a constituent (including a smoke constituent) or additive, an artificial or natural flavor (other than tobacco or menthol) or an herb or spice, including strawberry, grape, orange, clove, cinnamon, pineapple, vanilla, coconut, licorice, cocoa, chocolate, cherry, or coffee, that is a characterizing flavor of the tobacco product or tobacco smoke

Any company who continues to make, ship or sell such products may be subject to FDA enforcement actions. You are encouraged to report any company that sells cigarettes with these certain characterizing flavors.

For more information, please visit http://www.fda.gov/TobaccoProducts/GuidanceComplianceRegulatoryInformation/FlavoredTobacco/default.htm

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Outreach -- Evergreen Senior Club











HP Meeting August 2009







To download the meeting mintutes, please copy and paste the link to your browser.
http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0Bzy_tqMuNorzZGMwM2ViMDktZTYxOC00OTczLTkzMTYtNGNlYjRlYjA2NDYw&hl=en

Thursday, September 17, 2009

AAHI Intern -- Stephanie J. Wong, M.A.



My clinical interests include working with diverse ethnic and sexual minorities, including college students with a wide range of mental health issues, particularly substance abuse and substance dependence. I am currently the Program Coordinator for the Lambda Center and Access to Recovery Programs at the Psychiatric Institute of Washington (PIW). PIW is a privately owned inpatient/outpatient facility providing psychological treatment to residents of the greater District of Columbia area. The Lambda Center provides psychological, substance abuse, and vocational counseling to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals in the inpatient or outpatient programs, and the Access to Recovery program provides similar services to heterosexual individuals. I have gained impeccable training in a variety of therapeutic modalities, including individual, couple, family, and group psychotherapy.

To further my clinical interests, I have accepted a position as an Intern at the Asian American Health Initiative, assuming a leadership role in the development of a mental health program for the agency.

Congruent to my clinical interests, my dissertation research involves examining psychological help seeking intentions and behaviors of Asian American and Caucasian college students. The study will investigate how demographic variables, psychological symptoms, enculturation, stigma, professional psychological help seeking attitudes, and conceptualization of psychological problems are related to intentions to seek counseling and actual help seeking behavior. Differences, or lack thereof between Asian American and Caucasian students in predictor and outcome variables will be examined. The chair of my dissertation committee is my academic advisor, Dr. Jerome Short.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

AAHI Intern -- Sau Kuen (Lesley) Fung

My name is Sau Kuen (Lesley) Fung. I am from Hong Kong and am currently pursuing the Master of Public Health in Health Promotion degree at The George Washington University. It is my great pleasure to have the opportunity to work with the AAHI team.

My major task for this internship is to complete a research project entitled “Formative Research Towards the Design and Implementation of an Effective Hepatitis B Screening Program for Chinese Americans in Montgomery County, Maryland”. Through understanding of the motivations and barriers related to Hepatitis B screening among Chinese Americans in Montgomery County, I hope the results of my research project could contribute to the design and implementation of a more effective Hepatitis B screening program for the Chinese American community and possibly other Asian American communities. Apart from the Hepatitis B screening research project, I would also like to involve in as much as possible other AAHI programs and projects during my internship. Look forward to working and learning from all of you.

AAHI Intern -- Josephine Tong

My name is Josephine Tong. I am a senior at Walt Whitman High school.I am originally from Hong Kong but moved to Maryland because of my father's job. I got my internship at the AAHI through a Montgomery county program I joined called, The Superintendent Leadership Program. The languages which I can speak consist of English, Mandarin and Cantonese. My interest is within the AAHI because I want to help minorities with certain barriers they have in their environments. The goals of my internship are to achieve a greater understanding of the field which I want to study in and to come up with a specific area in Public Health which I am interested in studying.

Friday, September 4, 2009

AAHI Intern -- Trang Vuong



My name is Trang Vuong, my background is Vietnamese American. I can speak both English and Vietnamese. As an Asian American and a Biological Science major, I am very interest in learning more about health issues and diseases especially concerning Asian American. My goals for the future and for this internship are to learn as much as I can on health issues and health disparity that directly effecting Asian American. I am looking forward to participate in as much outreach events as I can. In addition to meeting and working with everyone at AAHI.