Claire Fiddian-Green is the President & CEO of the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. This week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) released a report on tobacco use among U.S. middle and high school students for the period 2011-2016. The report showed that use of tobacco over that timeframe did not change significantly, with 7.2% of middle school students and 20.2% of high school students indicating current use of a tobacco product. The most popular tobacco product among high school students is e-cigarettes, followed by cigarettes, cigars, smokeless tobacco, hookah, pipe tobacco and bidis. Why should Indiana care about these latest findings? As noted in a study released by the Richard […]

Claire Fiddian-Green is the President & CEO of the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. It’s back-to-school season again. Parents and other caregivers are focused on ensuring their children start the year off successfully – encouraging everything from good studying and homework habits to participation on athletic teams or in other extracurricular activities. But are we focusing enough attention on our children’s safety, especially when it comes to alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs – including access to prescription medications? A recent study published in JAMA Surgery found that 67% to 92% of adult patients who are prescribed opioid painkillers following surgery do not take all of their medication and do not dispose […]