Field Placement: LA County Department of Public Health, Tobacco Control and Prevention Program
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Preceptor: Montgomery Messex
Student Name: Lana Sklyar
Year: 2008

I conducted my field studies at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LACDPH), Tobacco Control and Prevention Program (TCPP). From June 7, 2008 until October 31, 2008, I worked on various activities for the Tobacco-Free Pharmacy and Koreatown Objectives, which were negotiated between TCPP an the California State Department of Public Health for the fiscal years 2007-2010. TCPP is led by the Program Director, Linda Aragon, and supervised by Dr. Paul Simon, the director of the Division of Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention of the LACDPH. TCPP was first funded by the California Department of Health Services through the Prop 99 tobacco tax initiative 19 years ago. Since that time, TCPP has worked hard to offer public education and create policies to reduce tobacco use in L.A. County and support its mission of reducing the disease, disability, and mortality associated with tobacco use. In order to achieve its objectives, TCPP works closely with community-based organizations and coalitions to educate the public about tobacco control issues. TCPP also works closely with city staff to educate them about the ill effects of tobacco use within the community and advocate for tobacco control policies.  

During my field studies, I worked extensively with my preceptor, evaluation staff, and the TCPP health educators to make sure that the work I did fit well with the activities that TCPP had negotiated with the CA State Department of Health Services. Specifically, I worked on two objectives that fall into TCPP’s priority areas of decreasing exposure to secondhand smoke and to reducing tobacco availability. The Koreatown Objective aims to increase compliance with the California Smoke-Free Workplace Law among restaurants, cafes, bars, and nightclubs in Koreatown. To address this issue of noncompliance, TCPP works with the L.A. City Attorney’s Office, the L.A. City Fire Department (LAFD), and numerous other organizations on various activities to develop an intervention. In working on this objective, I was responsible for creating a baseline survey instrument to obtain a valid measure of noncompliance with the Smoke-Free Workplace Law among bars and restaurants in Koreatown. Furthermore, I had to create a key informant survey instrument and accompanying protocol, and then conduct interviews with city staff and researchers about the barriers to increasing compliance with the law.

TCPP’s Tobacco-Free Pharmacy Objective aims to increase the percentage of independent pharmacies in L.A. County that adopt a voluntary policy not to sell tobacco. In working on this objective, I was responsible for conducting research on pharmacy schools and organizations that would support TCPP in this campaign, creating a strategy chart for the campaign, and reviewing materials from previous tobacco-free pharmacy campaigns. Furthermore, I assisted TCPP staff in creating and conducting a baseline survey to assess how many independent pharmacies in L.A. County sell tobacco. Also, I created a key informant survey instrument and accompanying protocol, and then conducted interviews with public health professionals regarding challenges and solutions to adopting a voluntary policy not to sell tobacco in pharmacies.

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