How “secret shopping” teens prevent access to tobacco: Fel Pajimula explains

April 5, 2017.Reading time 7 minutes.

For National Public Health Week (April 3-9th), we’re celebrating by featuring unsung public health heroes who make our communities safer and healthier. Each day, we’ll highlight a public health worker through their own words, sharing their work and why they’re committed to serving our community. Today, we talk with Fel Pajimula of our Tobacco Prevention […]

Carbon monoxide in hookah smoke

January 27, 2017.Reading time 4 minutes.

The charcoal used to heat the tobacco in a hookah gives off potentially toxic amounts of carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide (CO) is an invisible, odorless gas that can poison you if you breathe it in. CO is in fumes produced when you burn fuel like charcoal. While many believe smoking hookah—a water pipe used to smoke […]

Quittin’ kittens: where are they now?

November 17, 2016.Reading time 6 minutes.

This year, 10 kittens made headlines by making 2016 their year to quit tobacco, and one question has been keeping us up at night: where are they now? In honor of the Great American Smokeout, Public Health Insider caught up with the quittin’ kittens to find out.

Operating agreement reached with one local hookah lounge

April 29, 2016.Reading time less than 1 minute.

On Friday, April 29, Public Health — Seattle & King County and Medina, a local hookah lounge, negotiated an operating agreement to resolve an active enforcement action. The criteria agreed upon, if followed by Medina, allows them to remain in business and in compliance with the Washington State Smoking in Public Places Act and King County […]

Local Colleges Reinvigorate Tobacco Prevention

November 18, 2015.Reading time 4 minutes.

What’s as addictive as heroin, more deadly than car accidents, and costs the U.S. over $170 billion in healthcare costs each year? Yes, we’re going there. It’s tobacco. We know: tobacco control doesn’t have the thrill of hunting down an E. coli outbreak, nor the gross fascination of a raccoon latrine. But as we express […]

Renton Housing Authority takes on secondhand smoke

January 23, 2015.Reading time 4 minutes.

In the United States, it’s estimated that secondhand smoke takes the lives of 49,400 non-smoking adults each year. Secondhand smoke can also have lasting health effects on children, including longer and worse asthma attacks, ear and respiratory infections, trouble breathing, and sore throats. While bans on smoking in public are in place across the country, […]