Dr. Bernadette Dragich, Professor of Nursing, submitted the grant through the BSC Center for Applied Research and Technology (CART). The College was notified recently that the West Virginia Bureau for Public Health's Tobacco Prevention Program selected BSC to receive a grant award of $20,000.

"The grant promotes tobacco cessation and provides the funding to conduct a ‘clean indoor air' survey," explained Dr. Dragich. Concurrent with this program, the College will take part in the "Great American Smokeout" on November 20, and BSC nursing students will conduct informational/educational sessions at selected campus locations to encourage tobacco cessation, she said.

"The tobacco cessation effort includes ‘spit tobacco,' cigarettes, and second-hand smoke," noted Dragich, the project's principal investigator. BSC nursing faculty, Bruce Sneidman (Associate Professor of Professional Office Systems Technology), and Bruce Mutter (Associate Professor of Architectural Engineering Technology and CART Executive Director) are also participating in the research project.

Last year, BSC received a $10K tobacco cessation grant, whose focus included a survey to determine the types of students more likely to smoke, examining why they smoked, analyzing survey results, and tailoring a marketing plan to promote socially acceptable tobacco cessation at BSC. "Information gleaned from that survey will be incorporated into this year's initiative," she added.

"Among West Virginia's 55 counties, Mercer is the only county that has repealed a ‘clean indoor air' ordinance," Dragich said. "As this project progresses, we are hopeful students will ‘kick the smoking habit.' It is a true ‘win-win' process, benefitting the students and the College."

October 10, 2002