American Public Health Association (APHA) is committed to protecting all Americans and their communities from preventable diseases and health threats by assuring community-based health promotion, disease prevention activities, and preventive health services are accessible to everyone (American Public Health Association, n.d.). APHA works on public health issues like public health and emergency preparedness, food safety, hunger and nutrition, climate change, public health infrastructure, disease control, international health, and tobacco control (American Public Health Association, n.d.). APHA policy statements help shape APHA’s position on legislation and regulations, are used to write briefs and statements on many public health issues, highlight the latest research on specific public health topics, and source of information for reference (American Public Health Association, n.d.b). The APHA policies contain policy statements. The three policies on the APHA policy statements I reviewed are APHA Policy Statement 201412: Supporting the Goal of a Tobacco-Free Military, APHA Policy Statement 20076: Tobacco-Free School Environments, and APHA Policy Statement 20082: Discouraging Smoking in Feature Films to Avoid Influencing Youth to Smoke.
The policy statement I selected is Supporting the Goal of a Tobacco-Free Military, and the policy number is 201412 and dated Nov 18, 2014. The smoking prevalence of military personnel was 24% and is higher than the civilians 21.2%, and harms of tobacco among military personnel include lower levels of readiness and physical fitness, increase hospital stay, and economic harm (American Public Health Association, 2014). The Department of Defense (D of D) annual expenditure on tobacco-related health care and lost productivity is $1.6 billion (American Public Health Association, 2014). The two strengths policy statement was that it explained the high prevalence of smoking among the military personnel and the harm smoking causes the military, disease, and the financial burden. The policy statement also contains the steps that D of D can take to achieve a tobacco-free military. The two ways to improve the policy statement include explaining the mortality and environmental harm caused by tobacco use. Tobacco cause death, disease, economic and environmental pollution. The policy statement did not contain the environmental harm caused by tobacco use. The toxins from smoking cigarettes cause air pollution. Many people who are nonsmokers are exposed to secondhand smoking. APHA supports the call for a tobacco-free military and the development and implementation of military-specific tobacco control policies and partnerships to help the military reach this goal (American Public Health Association, 2014).
References
American Public Health Association. (n.d.a). Policy statement and advocacy. Retrieved from
https://www.apha.org/policies-and-advocacy
American Public Health Association. (n.d.b). Policy statements. Retrieved from
https://www.apha.org/policies-and-advocacy/public-health-policy-statements
American Public Health Association. (2014). Supporting the goal of a tobacco-free military.
Retrieved from https://www.apha.org/policies-and-advocacy/public-health-policy-statements/policy-database/2015/01/23/10/22/supporting-the-goal-of-a-tobacco-free-military
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