Section on Tobacco Control

Mission, Vision and Goals

Mission

To educate pediatricians and other health care professionals about all aspects of tobacco prevention and control, including how to counsel patients and families, offer treatment and/or referral for tobacco dependence, and advocate for public policies necessary to reduce tobacco dependence and exposure to tobacco smoke.

 

Vision

All pediatricians will have the skills, materials, and confidence that they need to effectively prevent tobacco use in adolescents, intervene with families and adolescents who use tobacco, and to advocate on behalf of tobacco-free lives for all children and their families.

 

Goals

  1. Provide pediatricians with the knowledge, skills, and resources to reduce children’s exposure to tobacco smoke and reduce youth rates of smoking and tobacco use initiation.

  2. Support and facilitate adherence to and implementation of current guidelines and develop future guidelines pertaining to tobacco dependence treatment, prevention, and control.

  3. Foster collaboration between pediatricians, pediatric sub-specialists, other colleagues and professional health care organizations and societies to maximize and synchronize efforts to eliminate children’s exposure to tobacco and secondhand smoke and prevent the initiation of tobacco use.

  4. Serve as a resource for parents, families, and communities for tobacco control including the elimination of involuntary tobacco smoke exposure, reduction of adolescent smoking and tobacco use initiation, and treatment of tobacco dependence.