Today Marks Start of Lung Cancer Awareness Month Focused on Nation's Number-One Cancer Killer

Today Marks Start of Lung Cancer Awareness Month Focused on Nation's Number-One Cancer Killer

American Legacy Foundation(R), National Association of Broadcasters Launch Code Blue for Lung Cancer Campaign to Inform Americans

WASHINGTON, Nov. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- A new national public service campaign, Code Blue for Lung Cancer, launches today for Lung Cancer Awareness Month. The partnership between the American Legacy Foundation(R) and the National Association of Broadcasters spreads the life-saving message that early detection, quitting smoking and the search for a cure can help make lung cancer history.

The Code Blue campaign is a comprehensive national effort to raise awareness about preventing lung cancer and increase survival rates for those struggling with it. Code Blue includes a 30-minute documentary that explores the devastating impact of lung cancer on four families and discusses how to reduce lung cancer deaths, primarily through early diagnosis and by quitting smoking. The campaign, in both English and Spanish, also includes radio and television public service announcements, a guidebook for local broadcasters, and an accompanying online component (http://www.americanlegacy.org/codeblue).

Code Blue is NAB's first public service campaign to be produced in high definition and will be provided to local television stations nationwide for broadcast during Lung Cancer Awareness Month. The documentary was produced and directed by Academy-Award(R) winner Gerardine Wurzburg with State of the Art, Inc.

"In continuing broadcasters' proud tradition of community service, NAB and local broadcasters nationwide are proud to support this lifesaving effort to educate the public about lung cancer," said NAB President and CEO David K. Rehr.

American Legacy Foundation CEO and President Dr. Cheryl Healton said the campaign will help reduce the stigma associated with lung cancer. Eighty-five percent of people diagnosed with lung cancer are current or former smokers, whom many perceive as having had the power to avoid a lung cancer diagnosis if only they had been able to quit. However, research shows two things: that nicotine is highly addictive, and that while 70 percent of smokers want to quit, many lack the tools and resources to quit for good.

"No one deserves to have lung cancer. We're hopeful that the stories told in Code Blue will help all of us better understand America's number-one cancer killer," Dr. Healton said. "If we are to beat it, we must learn how to limit our lung cancer risks by reducing the uptake of smoking by youth and increasing adult smoking cessation. Then, our best efforts as a nation must focus on early detection, increasing survival rates and ultimately finding a cure."

Code Blue public service announcements include a message from former President George H.W. Bush, who says, "Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States. It's a national tragedy killing thousands each year, leaving behind devastated families. Cigarette smoking causes most cases of lung cancer. If you or a loved one smoke, get the help you need to quit now."

Former President Bush has been a long-time champion with his wife Barbara, in the fight against cancer after losing one of their children, Robin Bush, to leukemia in 1953. Former President Bush co-chairs C-Change, formerly the National Dialogue on Cancer.

More than 50 members of Congress served as honorary co-chairs for Code Blue to call attention to the nation's number-one cancer killer.

More information about lung cancer is available online at http://www.americanlegacy.org/codeblue, as well as through resource partners including the American Cancer Society, American Lung Association and the Lung Cancer Alliance. The Code Blue Web site offers details for the public and the news media interested in localized stories about the disease for Lung Cancer Awareness Month this November and throughout the year.

The Code Blue for Lung Cancer radio and television PSAs were produced by GSD&M of Austin, TX, the American Legacy Foundation's agency of record for cessation advertising.

The American Legacy Foundation(R) is dedicated to building a world where young people reject tobacco and anyone can quit. Located in Washington, D.C., the foundation develops programs that address the health effects of tobacco use, especially among vulnerable populations disproportionately affected by the toll of tobacco, through grants, technical assistance and training, partnerships, youth activism, and counter-marketing and grassroots marketing campaigns. The foundation's programs include truth(R), a national youth smoking prevention campaign that has been cited as contributing to significant declines in youth smoking, EXsm, an innovative public health program designed to speak to smokers in their own language and change the way they approach quitting, research initiatives exploring the causes, consequences and approaches to reducing tobacco use, and nationally renowned program of outreach to priority populations. The American Legacy Foundation was created as a result of the November 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) reached between attorneys general from 46 states, five U.S. territories and the tobacco industry. Visit http://www.americanlegacy.org/.

The National Association of Broadcasters is a trade association that advocates on behalf of more than 8,300 free, local radio and television stations and also broadcast networks before Congress, the Federal Communications Commission and the Courts. Information about NAB can be found at http://www.nab.org/.

Source: American Legacy Foundation

CONTACT: Julia Cartwright of the American Legacy Foundation,
+1-202-454-5596; or Kris Jones of the National Association of Broadcasters,
+1-202-429-5486

Web site: http://www.americanlegacy.org/
http://www.nab.org/

NOTE TO EDITORS: A b-roll package with content helping smokers as they prepare to quit is available at the following satellite coordinates: SATELLITE COORDINATES: WHAT: Code Blue for Lung Cancer, WHEN: November 14, 2006 1- 1:30 pm & 4 - 4:30 pm EDT, COORDINATES: 1-1:30 pm EDT Intelsat A-6, Transponder 18, D-L, Frequency: 4060 Horizontal, 4-4:30 pm EDT Intelsat A-6, Transponder 19, D-L, Frequency: 4080 Vertical, C-Band Audio 6.2-6.8

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