Press Releases
Jazz Funeral Mourns Worldwide Deaths From Tobacco Use
For immediate release
Media Contact:
Jason Melancon, TFL
504.301.9841 or jmelancon@lphi.org
Amy B. Ferguson, Keating Magee
504.299.7175 or amyf@keatingmagee.com
Jazz Funeral Mourns Worldwide Deaths From Tobacco Use
World No Tobacco Day – Tuesday, May 31, 2005 4.9 million die annually from tobacco-related illnesses
New Orleans, LA, May 27, 2005 The name of Louis Armstrong embodies the worldwide renown of New Orleans musical legacy. But there is an uglier underlying fact for Satchmo and many other New Orleans musical greats. Louis, and thousands of other musicians, died from tobacco-related illnesses heart attack, emphysema, pancreatic cancer, lung cancer, etc.
On Tuesday, May 31, 2005, New Orleanians, led by members of the Zulu Walking Warriors and the Ernie K-Doe Baby Dolls, will take to the streets to mourn the 6,400 Louisianians who die each year as a result of smoking. Additionally, between 750 and 1200 nonsmokers die annually in Louisiana from secondhand smoke exposure.
The jazz funeral, jointly hosted by the Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco-Free Living (TFL), American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, American Lung Association, City of New Orleans Health Department, Louisiana Public Health Institute, Louisiana Office of Public Health Tobacco Control Program, and Step Together New Orleans in honor of World No Tobacco Day, will begin at 11:30am at 1600 Canal St. (corner of Canal and Claiborne). From there the cortege, replete with horse-drawn hearse and brass band, processes down Canal Street to Elk Place and turns toward Loyola Avenue, then heads along Loyola to Perdido Street where it will end with a press conference on the steps of City Hall scheduled for 12:30pm.
A cigarette is the only legally available consumer product that kills through normal use, said Tom Houston, M.D., TFLs director. This is our attempt to raise the awareness of tobacco as a global problem that hits hard in our state and communities. We arent just losing great musicians to tobacco related diseases. Ask anyone on the street most people know someone who has or has died from emphysema, cancer, or other complications related to smoking.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), which sponsors World No Tobacco Day, tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death in the world today. Half the people that smoke today, about 650 million people, will eventually be killed by tobacco. By 2020, tobacco will be responsible for as many as 10 million deaths annually. No other consumer product in the world is as dangerous, or kills as many people, as tobacco. In Louisiana, three-quarters of the states residents do not smoke, and over two-thirds support smoke-free workplace policies designed to protect workers from the real dangers of secondhand smoke exposure.
On World No Tobacco Day, we want to urge everyone to think carefully about the immense toll tobacco takes on our city and state. Even secondhand smoke is much more dangerous than Louisiana residents think its a poison that is full of chemicals known to cause cancer, said Dr. Houston.
The Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco-Free Living provides statewide coordination of existing tobacco control initiatives, funds innovative community programming for tobacco control, and develops statewide media campaigns to help reduce the excessive burden of tobacco use on the states resources and improve Louisianas overall health and quality of life. For more information on creating a smoke-free environment where you live or work, visit www.tobaccofreeliving.org
