On August 5, the Lung Association was proud to announce the Vape-Free Schools Scholarship Fund, a new effort to fund schools’ implementation of the Vape-Free Schools Initiative so that more kids can access cessation, support and education. The scholarship drive seeks to raise funds to give schools across the country access to online training and resources to help students quit vaping. With a cost of $400 per training seat, the goal is to raise $400,000 to serve 1,000 schools in need by the end of 2021. Through this scholarship drive, the Lung Association will enable faculty and students to access the Lung Association’s proven vaping intervention and cessation programs. See this special message from award winning actress and Advisory to our National Board of Directors, Laura Dern! Donate today at Lung.org/Scholarship.
August is National Immunization Awareness Month: This is the perfect time to talk to your doctor about getting immunized against pneumococcal pneumonia, the most common type of bacterial pneumonia, that can be serious in adults 65 and older. Learn more about this potentially serious disease at Lung.org/pneumococcal – in partnership with Pfizer
Our Not On Tobacco (N-O-T)® program addresses the growing problem of youth tobacco use, including vaping, by giving all teens the resources they need to break nicotine dependency and find healthier outlets. This month, we launched NOT for Me, a web-based program that gives students the tools to quit smoking or vaping. NOTforMe.org will teach teens about the importance of physical activity, nutrition, enhancing their sense of self-control and more.
Check Out our Latest Lungcast™: Lungcast is a pulmonary podcast series by the American Lung Association and HCPLive. Check out our latest episode Future of Lung Cancer Precision Medicine with Dr. Andrea Mazzocchi, Co-founder and CEO of Known Medicine.
SUPPORT THE LUNG ASSOCIATION
Help Support the Lung Association! Thank you to all who participated in and supported our early summer events! Looking for more opportunities to support the Lung Association’s lifesaving Mission? We’ve kicked off our LUNG FORCE Walk and Run/Walk season with events scheduled through the fall. Right now, your support is more important than ever! Find an event near you and register today.
LUNG CANCER
A New Treatment Option for KRAS-positive Lung Cancer: Once considered “undruggable,” KRAS mutations were a thorn in researcher’s sides–-until now. On May 28, 2021, the first KRAS G12C targeted therapy was approved (Sotorasib), opening up another line of therapy and hope for lung cancer patients.
LUNG FORCE Hero: In our new blog, Emily Y. shares how she continues to honor her mother’s memory. From participating in a LUNG FORCE walk, to recently joining the Lung Cancer Caregiver Advisory Group, “sharing my story is the best possible way to honor my mom.”
RESEARCH
Spotlight on Published Research: A member of our Research Team, Xiaoyi Yuan, Ph.D., at University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston was recently published in the journal, Anesthesiology . The paper, titled “Targeting the Hypnoxia-Adenosine Link for Controlling Excessive Inflammation,” found a molecular pathway stabilizing the loss of oxygen in one’s cells and body tissues that may eventually translate into a treatment for excessive inflammation. Dr. Yuan received the Lung Association’s 2019-2020 Catalyst Award for her project, “Evaluating Role of MicroRNA as Therapeutic Target for ARDS.”
HEALTH PROMOTIONS
Back to School - Advocate for Your Students’ Asthma Care: Navigating the risks involved with back-to-school during an ongoing pandemic can be especially daunting if you have a child with a chronic lung disease, like asthma. Hear answers from our experts regarding the top searched questions by parents like you. Read more.
You’re Invited - Little Airways, Big Voices: To bring the voice of families impacted by asthma in childhood to the forefront of drug development and research, the Allergy & Asthma Network, American Lung Association, American Partnership for Eosinophilic Disorders, and Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America are teaming up to host a virtual, patient-focused drug development (PFDD) meeting on September 20, 2021, from 10:00 am - 3:00 pm. There are multiple ways to share your voice.
- Complete a brief survey to help us gather insights on the impact of asthma, treatment options, and living with and managing childhood asthma
- Join us virtually on September 20th for the PFDD meeting
- Share a written testimony about your experiences living with and managing asthma in children
Learn more at: https://littleairwaysbigvoices.org
ADVOCACY
Leading for Lungs: On July 22, we hosted our Leading for Lungs Day of Action. Thank you to everyone who joined in to make this day a success as we all urged Congress to invest in a healthier future! You made sure Congress heard loud and clear that they need to further expand access to quality and affordable healthcare and make transformative investments in clean energy, clean transportation and environmental justice to address air pollution and climate change. Lung Association volunteer advocates held 12 virtual meetings with key Senate offices, and many more of you joined in with our brand-new tool that makes it easy and automatic to connect with your members of Congress.
A Win! CMS Keeps Important Tobacco Cessation Measure for Psychiatric Payments: We achieved a significant win for patients, through our efforts to ensure access to quit smoking interventions for an important segment of the behavioral health population. In April, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed eliminating a key tobacco cessation measure (offering and providing brief tobacco cessation interventions) for the Medicare Inpatient Psychiatric Facilities Prospective Payment System. This was highly troubling because data show that individuals with serious psychological distress smoke at rates higher than those without. Additionally, data also show that behavioral health and substance abuse treatment centers do not provide cessation treatment consistently.
The Lung Association led the effort to save this measure from being removed. We submitted detailed comments, drafted talking points and encouraged other organizations and individuals to submit comments urging CMS to keep this key measure. Our efforts were successful: CMS will keep this key tobacco cessation measure and they cited the comments they received as their reason.
EACH BREATH BLOG
How to Prepare Your Asthma and COPD Travel Pack: Putting together an Asthma or COPD travel pack now can help ensure you have all your medications and instructions in one easily accessible place when you need to leave home unexpectedly or for an extended period. Read More.
Your support is more important than ever!
Because of your support, we are conducting research to discover new ways to prevent, treat and even cure lung diseases like COVID-19. The American Lung Association is also hard at work addressing lung cancer, asthma, COPD and more. Through your generous support our diverse and lifesaving work is possible. COVID-19 has given a new and more urgent meaning to: When You Can’t Breathe, Nothing Else Matters®. Thank you for all you do to help during this most important time!
Blog last updated: August 21, 2023
