This reference material was created in 1997, well before the Internet was as popular and as easy as it is these days (Oct. '05).  Heck, cell phone calls were still expensive and forget about thinking that the new blackberry can show the internet on a phone (2008).  This information was located on the Seton Hall University, N.J. web site until 2003 where I did work for some 13 years.  This information was collected and presented for a state grant a professor received at that time. Creating a web page was really high tech at that time.  The link and page have since been removed.  On a whim I decided to "Google" my old login name "butkusmi" and found hundreds of links to this page for shu.edu/~butkusmi/smoke/smoking or pirate.shu.edu/~butkusmi/smoke/smoking    My sister's passing some 12 years ago due to smoking was my initial reason for helping post this information.  Since there continues to be some hundreds of links to this information, I am posting it again on my personal site.  I created the HTML pages with Netscape Composer, the only thing available at the time.  A Seton Hall professor collected and created the documentation, I created the page and links.  Please remember, the date is 1997 when the addresses, pricing and phone number were first posted.

I was contacted by a librarian in 2012 and told to also check this site
 http://www.healthinsurancesort.com/guide-effects-of-smoking.htm

I was contacted in 2013 to add this site
http://ecigarettereviewed.com/cigarettes-and-the-health-effects-of-tobacco/

 -- - -- - - - last update 7-23-97- - - - 

Click on these subjects for more information:

Background and Purpose	NJ Smoking Cessation Resource Guide
Objectives	Educational Resources- Risk Populations
ASSIST Intervention	Children & Teenagers
Impact of ASSIST	Women & Minorities
Time Line
Funded Sites
Addiction- Understanding Nicotine	Economic Costs of Tobacco
Educational Resources	Environmental Tobacco Smoke
Internet Resources	School Programs to Prevent Tobacco Usage
Media and Advertising in Tobacco
Smoke Free Communities	Smoke Free Dining
STAKE- Stop Tobacco Access to Kids Enforcement Kit
Tobacco Facts
Work Place: Establishing Tobacco Control Policies
Women and Girls Against Tobacco

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BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: ASSIST represents a collaborative effort between the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the American Cancer Society (ACS), along with state and local health departments and other voluntary organizations to develop comprehensive tobacco control programs in 17 states. Its purpose is to demonstrate that the wide-spread, coordinated application of the best available strategies to prevent and control tobacco use will significantly accelerate the current downward trend in smoking and tobacco use. The result is a substantial reduction in the number and rate of tobacco-related cancers in the United States. The ASSIST intervention model is based on proven smoking prevention and control methods developed within the NCI's intervention trials and other smoking and behavioral research.

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OBJECTIVES: The primary objective of ASSIST is to demonstrate and evaluate ways to accelerate the decline in smoking prevalence in all 17 ASSIST states, reducing the rate by 43% by the year 2000. In order to achieve change of this magnitude, ASSIST interventions will be implemented in ways that will affect the greatest number of smokers and potential smokers, placing special emphasis on blue collar workers, women, ethnic minorities, and youth.

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ASSIST INTERVENTION: ASSIST is a community-based intervention directed by state and local volunteer coalitions which plan and implement tobacco control activities. Through ASSIST, media and policy advocacy interventions will be directed at the community using the health care system, schools, worksites, and other community channels. Broad, sweeping changes in policies that regulate where tobacco can be used are key to changing tile social environment. Public support for tobacco control policies can be strengthened by using the media and media advocacy techniques to increase coverage of these issues and to reinforce the emerging non-smoking norm. Interventions involving policy and media create a demand for program services by community providers. With the exception of training health care providers to deliver brief cessation counseling, ASSIST promotes but does not provide funds to develop or provide program services. Instead, it will mobilize and activate community resources for smoking prevention and cessation. For example, the ACS will provide support with educational materials, and the efforts of an active network of more than 800,000 volunteers and 1,000 local units in the 17 ASSIST sites. Tile focus on policy and media advocacy rather than on program ser-vices will allow limited resources to be allocated to those interventions that have the greatest potential for reducing smoking prevalence in ASSIST sites.

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IMPACT OF ASSIST. Ninety-one million Americans from across the country, including 18 million smokers, will be reached by ASSIST. More than 4.5 million extra adults will quit smoking and 2 million adolescents will be prevented from becoming addicted. Overall, it is expected that 1.2 million premature deaths will be averted, including, 422,000 deaths from lung cancer.

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TIMELINE: Seventeen state health departments are funded through the contract mechanism for a 24 month planning period which began in September 1991 (Phase 1). The five year intervention phase will begin September of 1993 and continue through 1998 (Phase 11).

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FUNDED SITES: Contracts were awarded to public health departments in: Colorado, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Total awards to states over the 7-year period are $114.5 million. The ACS will support ASSIST with a matching 15% contribution of the total contract funding in each ASSIST site.