Adagio Health Celebrates World No Tobacco Day 2021

Pittsburgh, PA (May 11, 2021) — Every year, on May 31st, Adagio Health and its partners celebrate World No Tobacco Day. The annual World Health Organization (WHO) campaign is an opportunity to raise awareness about the harmful and deadly effects of tobacco use and second-hand smoke exposure, and to discourage the use of tobacco in any form. The focus of World No Tobacco Day 2021 is to promote tobacco cessation in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Tobacco use is responsible for the deaths of more than 400,000 people every year in the United States,” said Adagio Health president and CEO, BJ Leber. “With new risks associated with smoking and COVID-19, there is even greater urgency attached to helping people quit. Adagio Health offers a wide array of health and wellness services including medical care, nutrition and food insecurity relief, and community education. Our Tobacco Free Adagio Health program is focused on prevention and cessation efforts that can save lives. We have cessation counselors and coaches ready to help member of the communities we serve–and we are proud to participate in World No Tobacco Day every year.”

According to the WHO, the pandemic has led to millions of tobacco users worldwide expressing a desire to quit. The global campaign aims to empower and support at least 100 million tobacco users in their efforts to quit. The importance of cessation has been highlighted during this global public health crisis. The World Health Organization released a scientific brief in 2020 showing that smokers are at a higher risk for developing severe disease and death from COVID-19. Adagio Health and the WHO are focused on ensuring that smokers trying to quit have access to advice, toll-free quit lines, mobile and digital cessation services, nicotine replacement therapies, and other tools that are proven to help people quit. Nicotine users who want to quit can visit the Tobacco Free Adagio Health website at: adagiohealth.org/quit – or call Adagio Health directly at 1-800-215-7494.

In December 2020 the WHO launched a year-long “Commit to Quit” campaign to help 100 million people quit tobacco. “Commit to Quit” is intended to help create healthier environments that are conducive to quitting tobacco by advocating for strong tobacco cessation policies, increasing access to cessation services, raising awareness of tobacco industry tactics, and empowering tobacco users to make successful quit attempts through “quit & win” initiatives.

Throughout the pandemic, Adagio Health has been conducting virtual cessation classes to help support Pennsylvanians looking to quit smoking during these challenging times. Adagio Health’s virtual cessation classes feature a team of experienced nicotine cessation professionals ready to support clients with options that include small group and one-on-one counseling sessions with tobacco treatment specialists; support in accessing and using the Pennsylvania Free Quitline; and free Nicotine Replacement Therapy including gum, patches, or mints. Virtual classes are available to adults, teens, schools, and health professionals.

Adagio Health cessation specialists are also available to talk with parents and to provide resources and assistance with talking to teens about vaping, smoking, and how to quit.

More information is available at adagiohealth.org/quit or by calling 1-800-215-7494. Adagio Health manages the Tobacco Free Adagio Health program in Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Cambria, Fayette, Greene, Indiana, Somerset, Washington, and Westmoreland Counties. The Tobacco Free Adagio Health program focuses on prevention among teens and young adults; while offering tobacco cessation support services and technical assistance for the creation and updating of tobacco-free policies for businesses, schools, and local communities. Tobacco use kills more than 400,000 people per year in the United States; more than the total number killed by AIDS, alcohol, motor vehicles, homicide, illegal drugs, and suicide combined.

About Adagio Health – For fifty years Adagio Health has provided health and wellness services throughout western Pennsylvania. In 2018, the organization began an expansion that now includes breast and cervical cancer screening services in 62 counties across the state, and reproductive care in seven counties in West Virginia, and five counties in southern New York. Among the services Adagio Health offers and oversees: family planning and reproductive healthcare for women and men, prenatal care, breast and cervical cancer screening, community education, tobacco and nicotine cessation, and nutrition services including WIC in five Pennsylvania counties. Many of the nearly 110,000 patients receiving services are women who are uninsured or underinsured. Services are provided through funding from foundations, the State and Federal government and in partnership with a variety of local organizations and other funders.