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Kentucky receives failing grades from American Lung Association – with one exception

Kentucky's 2023 report card from the American Lung Association was wasn't good, with one exception.
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Kentucky's 2023 report card from the American Lung Association was wasn't good, with one exception.

The American Lung Association’s annual State of Tobacco Control report is out and Kentucky received mostly failing grades. However, the state did get a “B” for smoking cessation services. Rebekah Shoopman is the tobacco coordinator for the Fayette County Health Department. She teaches a free online program called “Freedom from Smoking.

“We offer this class at least four times a year. It is an eight session, seven-week class that participants are committed to.”

Shoopman said Freedom from Smoking has a 60 percent success rate.

“Participants get a participant book, they get, as long as they stay active in the class, they do get free nicotine replacement, depending on how much they're smoking or how much tobacco products they're using. So it's not just nailed down to smoking.”

Shoopman said the class is funded by tobacco settlement dollars.

Fayette County Health Department Tobacco Use Cessation and Prevention

John McGary is a Lexington native and Navy veteran with three decades of radio, television and newspaper experience.
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