Title: Nurses Invited to Join Nightingales

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Section/SPIG: Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs

Issue Date:

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The Nightingales, a group of nurse activists that focuses on highlighting the role of the tobacco industry in creating the worldwide epidemic of tobacco-caused disease and death, invites nurses to join. Co-founded last year by ATOD member Ruth Malone and other APHA nurses, the Nightingales bear witness on behalf of their patients and the families whose lives and livelihoods are damaged due to tobacco addiction. Last year, for the first time, nurses from across the United States attended the Altria (Philip Morris) shareholders' meeting to speak out, reading letters sent to Philip Morris from suffering families that the nurses located in previously secret tobacco industry documents. The Nightingales will attend again this year.

"Because the public trusts nurses to tell the truth, it's especially important for us to not just quietly keep caring for Big Tobacco's victims," said Malone. "We need to be speaking up, publicly raising the moral issues involved in continuing to promote these highly engineered, tremendously addictive and destructive products."

To join, support, or get more information about this volunteer group, go to the Nightingales Web site at <www.nightingalesnurses.org>.