Claire Fiddian-Green is the President & CEO of the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. While Indiana has many proud accomplishments, the health of our state’s population is not one. According to United Health Foundation’s America’s Health Rankings, Indiana is in the bottom-third of states for overall health – at 39th. And a recent Gallup study on well-being ranks our state at 47th. What are the primary drivers of our poor health rankings? First and foremost: tobacco use, as evidenced by our state’s 20.6% smoking rate. Second is addiction to prescription pain killers and heroin use – collectively referred to as “opioid use disorder.” These challenges might seem daunting, but we know […]

Claire Fiddian-Green is the President & CEO of the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. “When you see a rattlesnake poised to strike, you do not wait until he has struck to crush him.” –  Franklin D. Roosevelt E-cigarette use among youth has grown at an alarming rate. In 2017, over 2 million U.S. middle and high school students used an e-cigarette. This figure prompted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to launch a new youth e-cigarette prevention campaign this week to help stem what it refers to as an epidemic. Contrary to a popular misconception, e-cigarettes – including the dominant market brand, JUUL – do contain nicotine, which is a […]