Mission Moment December - 2019

The American Lung Association continues its key role in the effort to reverse the youth vaping epidemic. We have joined forces with other health organizations to advocate to clear the market of flavored e-cigarettes that attract and addict kids. On November 22, our CEO Harold Wimmer had the opportunity to participate in a round table discussion at the White House to ask President Trump to carry through with his proposal to remove these flavored products. Mr. Wimmer joined CEOs from the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, American Medical Association, Parents Against Vaping E-Cigarettes, Truth Initiative, American Academy of Pediatrics, and American Academy of Family Physicians and presented the public health case. He was interviewed on CNN immediately following the meeting. We also had the opportunity to explain the importance of clearing flavored e-cigarettes from the market to multiple other major media outlets including the New York Times. The Lung Association will continue to work to protect the lung health of our youth.

American Lung Association Increases Research Investment to $8.7 Million This Year: Making progress on our promise to double our investment in lung health research, the Lung Association has increased its research funding for this fiscal year to $8.7 million for a total of 73 awards, through both the Airways Clinical Research Centers and Awards and Grants Program. This announcement on November 19 came at an important time, as November was both Lung Cancer Awareness Month and COPD Awareness Month. The Lung Association and continues to seek new applicants for the 2020-2021 awards.

State of Lung Cancer Recap: On November 13, we released our 2nd annual “State of Lung Cancer” report, which examines key lung cancer indicators throughout each state in the U.S.: incidence, survival, early diagnosis, surgical treatment, lack of treatment and screening rates. The “State of Lung Cancer” is an important opportunity for the public and state leaders to better understand how they can help turn the tide against lung cancer. Learn more about lung cancer in your state.

LUNG CANCER

LUNG FORCE Highlights:

LUNG FORCE is celebrating another year of positive impact in the lives of lung cancer patients and toward the hope of eradicating America’s leading cancer killer. Among 2019’s many highlights were:

• Celebrating 5 full years of LUNG FORCE impact in May of 2019
• During LUNG FORCE Advocacy Day, LUNG FORCE Heroes made 188 visits to members of Congress to advocate for quality, affordable healthcare and research funding at the NIH
• During this year’s Turquoise Takeover celebration, 36 national anchors turned turquoise and two national morning shows mentioned LUNG FORCE on-air, driving 1.3 million media impressions
• On November 7, in partnership with the Ad Council, we launched our new “Matches” creative for the “Saved By The Scan” campaign
• This year, we funded 31 lung cancer researchers through our FY20 Awards and Grants program.

We look forward to doing even more and touching even more lives in 2020!

LUNG FORCE Hero: Jacquelyn B. shares how a low dose CT scan caught her lung cancer early, when it could be effectively removed with surgery. Take our Saved By The Scan quiz and find out if you should talk to your doctor about getting scanned for lung cancer.

RESEARCH

Latest Published Research: A member of our Research Team, Mohammed Abazzed, M.D., Ph.D., recently published a manuscript in Nature Communications. The paper, titled “Clonal selection confers distinct evolutionary trajectories in BRAF-driven cancers,” details the impact of tumor clonal architecture on therapeutic responses in BRAF mutant containing cancers. Mutations in the gene occur in approximately four percent of patients with non-small cell lung cancer. For more background on Dr. Abazzed, read our blog article.

TOBACCO

Quit, Don’t Switch: We know that quitting smoking is the single best thing you can do to improve your health. Don’t get confused by unproven claims made by tobacco and e-cigarette companies. Switching to e-cigarettes is not the same as quitting smoking for good. The FDA has not found any e-cigarette to be safe and effective in helping smokers quit and they are not doing enough to crack down on false claims being made by tobacco companies. According to one study, 80 percent of the smokers given e-cigarettes did not quit but switched and instead became addicted to e-cigarettes. The Lung Association is here to help! Access a 10 percent discount on our proven-effective quit-smoking program Freedom from Smoking Plus at Lung.org/quit-dont-switch.

Massachusetts Becomes First State to Prohibit All Flavored Tobacco Products; Pennsylvania Passes Tobacco 21: It’s well known that young tobacco users, including those who vape, are attracted to flavored products. On November 27, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker signed into law the nation’s toughest prohibition on flavored tobacco, including a ban on menthol cigarettes, setting the bar for states to reduce youth tobacco use. Governor Wolf of Pennsylvania has also signed into law legislation making the legal age of tobacco sales in the state 21. Although this law is not as comprehensive as it should be, it does raise the total to 19 states, plus D.C. which have enacted various Tobacco 21 laws. Is yours one? Find out here.

HEALTHY AIR

Final Month of the Year of Air Pollution & Health: The Year of Air Pollution & Health is in its final month, and this month’s focus is on action. We are encouraging everyone to speak up to protect the air we breathe by signing a petition to urge the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to withdraw their proposals to censor science. Please sign the petition if you haven’t already and encourage others to do so as well.

Leaders Speak Up for Healthy Air: Board members Sumita Khatri, MD, David Hill, MD, and Chief Medical Officer Albert Rizzo, MD, testified on the need for stronger, more protective limits on air pollution at EPA public hearings in early December. EPA is in the middle of a detailed review of the official limits on ozone and particle pollution, examining the recent science and studying the effectiveness of the current limits.

EVENTS

Almost Time to Climb! Fight For Air Climb time is coming and now is the time to build a team and get ready for a fun and unique event where you walk, run or race up the stairs of a skyscraper to raise funds for lung health. Are you up to the challenge? The funds you’ll raise support research, education and patient programs to help the millions of Americans impacted by asthma, COPD, lung cancer and other lung diseases. Find an event near you.

EACH Breath Blog

If you are in remission, cured, living with cancer or know someone who is, then you are in the right place and you are not alone! We have launched a new EACH Breath Blog series: Life After Cancer. For our first entry, guest blogger Denise Zimmerman shares her experience as a stage IV lung cancer survivor.

‘Tis the Season of Giving! Thanks to everyone who participated in #GivingTuesday. Thanks to your generous support, it was our most successful one yet. If you are as passionate about healthy lungs as we are, there are still ways to give. New is our Change for Lungs app. With it, every day purchases on your bank or credit card will round up to the nearest dollar and be donated directly to the American Lung Association. And of course there’s still time to make a tax-deductible donation this year. We wish you a happy and healthy holiday season and thank you for all you do to make our work possible!