At Publix Supermarkets, security is more than just video surveillance. ...more

December 17, 2009

With no grant funding this year, a program for at-risk youth and their families is carrying on, but seeking community support and dedicated board members. ...more

December 14, 2009

More than 400,000 people in the United States will die this year from a tobacco-related disease. For Kick Butts Day this year, SWAT students from Avon Park and Sebring high schools are taking a stand to stop youth from getting hooked on deadly tobacco products. ...more

March 23, 2009

It wasn't just a New Year's resolution. Dave Melden seriously wanted to quit smoking. ...more

January 1, 2009

About 22 miles of a proposed natural gas pipeline expansion could someday stretch through Pasco County. ...more

June 11, 2008

DADE CITY -- County commissioners are continuing to research hiring only nonsmokers in the future and considering a program to help current workers kick the tobacco habit. ...more

June 10, 2008

A health department representative is slated to discuss smoking-cessation programs for Pasco employees at a county commission meeting today. ...more

June 10, 2008

Contrary to a much–publicized announcement last May, Hollywood's rating system fails to warn parents that most movies feature smoking. Young audiences around the world are still being bombarded with billions of tobacco impressions every time an actor lights up or a tobacco brand is shown. This isn't a matter of personal taste or censorship. It's a major public health challenge. The tobacco industry rakes in $4 billion in lifetime sales through Hollywood movies that recruit kids to smoke every year. ...more

February 18, 2008

SEBRING — To kick butts, Tobacco Prevention Specialist Donna Noel Stayton thought about donning a cigarette costume to hand out fliers about the dangers of smoking. "Don't be a butt," Stayton said Monday at the Highlands County Health Department. People will say "oh no, here comes the lady with her cigarette costume." After working as a county health educator, Stayton assumed her new title Jan. 25 and specific mission, to combat smoking, after the county received a $388,000 grant for tobacco prevention. "We are so excited about this opportunity," she said. ...more

February 12, 2008

SEBRING — About 400 middle and high school students met regularly to plan activities on spreading the word about the dangers of tobacco and smoking. That was five years ago before a funding cut in 2003 severely curtailed, or at some schools ended the Students Working Against Tobacco (S.W.A.T.) program. With a federal grant to fund it, the Highlands County Health Department proposes to reinstitute the program in the county's high schools. Active S.W.A.T. membership in the county has dropped 70.8 percent since the year 2000, according Donna Noel Stayton, Health Department tobacco prevention specialist. About 28.1 percent of the high school students in Highlands County reported using tobacco within the last 30 days of taking the 2006 Florida Youth Tobacco Survey . ...more

January 22, 2008