Welcome to the Winter 2007 ATOD Section Newsletter and my first crack at trying to write a column that’s worthy of you taking your precious time to read it!  I think you’ll find this issue of our newsletter full of exciting and timely articles that are extremely relevant to our field.  The breadth and diversity of topics is as wide as our Section membership, which I hope will only continue to grow.  Together we have tremendous potential… so don’t hesitate to step up.

With new leadership in both houses of Congress, many new opportunities for issues of great concern to all of us are already appearing on the horizon.  Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., and others are about to reintroduce legislation that would give the Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate tobacco products.  This is an issue for which APHA has a long history of policy support and one that’s near and dear to the hearts of many of us.  Several of our Section members, including myself, have worked on this issue in one form or another over time, and we’re all doing our part, from our respective roles and perspectives, to ensure that we get good, strong FDA regulation of tobacco products that will actually reduce tobacco use and the public health burden of disease and death caused by these products.  In addition, Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., incidentally my own Representative in Congress, is co-sponsoring a bill to ensure equitable health insurance coverage for mental health care and addiction.

Beginning with this issue, Mary Brolin, our dedicated newsletter editor, and your Section leaders have attempted to focus each issue of the ATOD News on a particular topic or theme.  This time, in addition to our regular updates, we’re emphasizing important policy issues in our field.  So if you have ideas for the theme of future issues, please don’t hesitate to offer your suggestions to Mary or me.  Of course, we’re always glad to get articles of interest to the field and welcome your contributions that we can share with our members!  Be sure to check out articles on the following topics:  successful tobacco control ballot initiatives this past November that represent significant advances in comprehensive clean air issues or other tobacco control policies in states and communities across the country; the successful adoption of an APHA resolution drafted and introduced by our own Don Zeigler and supported by our Section Governing Councilors to promote a Framework Convention on Alcohol Control, which is an international treaty being proposed for action by the World Health Organization; and efforts to reduce underage drinking.  One article reports on efforts to reclassify sweet, flavored malt beverages from their current beer tax classification to a more appropriate distilled spirits tax classification.  Another important document that should be released soon is a Call to Action by the Surgeon General of the U.S. Public Health Service on Underage Drinking.  Many in our field are eagerly anticipating this report and hope that it will provide strong language that will facilitate definitive action to reduce the devastating problem of underage alcohol consumption.

Another job I’m happy to have is to invite you to get more involved in our Section.  As we all know, the people who are the busiest are the ones who are always asked to do more — maybe because they have such good ideas, or do such a great job and often have the most to contribute.  Our Section will only be as successful as the collective efforts of all our members.  Feel free to contact any of our Section Leaders, listed below, depending on your particular interest or expertise, or any of the individuals listed in the following articles — we’d all be glad to hear from you and get your help on our respective initiatives.  If you have an issue or topic that’s particularly important to you and that you think should be on the radar screen of the ATOD Section and isn’t yet, feel free to call me at (301) 496-0275.  I’ll be glad to hear from you and discuss how we can advance the issue by working together. 

We all have unique passions, talents and resources that motivate us and might help strengthen our collective resolve or improve some aspect of the public’s health, toward which we’re all working.  So be sure to keep your membership in APHA active and enlist as a member of the ATOD Section.  Many of you know, though perhaps not all, that the size of our delegation to the APHA Governing Council (where many important Association decisions are made) and the operating budget awarded to our Section are both determined by the number of our dues-paying Section members.  If you’re already a member, please invite your friends and co-workers to join APHA and select the ATOD Section for membership.  We all know that a personal invitation is most compelling, so don’t be shy about encouraging or cajoling others to join us — we’ll all have more fun that way…and get more done.  We all need you — no matter what your Uncle Sam says — to join ATOD and get more involved!

Take it Easy & Enjoy Life!

Bob Vollinger