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Both Alpha-1 Awareness Month and COPD Awareness Month marked with many activities throughout Florida

To mark November as both Alpha-1 Awareness Month and COPD Awareness Month, the Alpha-1 Foundation, COPD Foundation and Tallahassee Memorial Hospital recently sponsored spirometry testing for COPD at the hospital in Tallahassee, FL, on COPD Awareness Day, Nov. 18.

Florida Governor Charlie Crist presents the Alpha-1 Awareness Month proclamation to Patty Tew. State CFO Alex Sink is at center.

Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink attended and took her own spirometry test.

The day before, Alpha-1 support group leader Patty Tew from Orlando addressed the Florida cabinet officers about Alpha-1. Governor Charlie Crist presented Tew with a proclamation designating November as Alpha-1 Awareness Month in Florida.

The events in the state capital were among a series of activities to raise awareness of COPD and Alpha-1 throughout the month.

Earlier in the month, Jorge Zamudio of the COPD Foundation presented a plaque to Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina for making all of the city’s parks “smoke-free zones.” The plaque was presented on behalf of the Foundation and the Consortium for a Healthier Miami-Dade.

Alex Sink gets her own spirometry testing as part of Alpha-1 and COPD awareness activities.

The award, part of the Hialeah Youth Summit, was intended to raise interest in smoking cessation.

Diego Shmuels of the Alpha-1 Foundation. who heads the State of Florida Alpha-1 Detection Program, did a presentation on the benefits of smoking cessation and described Alpha-1. He also showed the Foundation’s powerful new video for Alpha-1 awareness.

Diego Shmuels talks about Alpha-1 and the benefits of smoking cessation.

Among the month’s other highlights in the state:

  • John Walsh, president & CEO of the Alpha-1 Foundation and president of the COPD Foundation, presented an award to the University of Miami School of Medicine and Jackson Memorial Hospital to recognize their efforts to improve health and strengthen the fight on COPD by becoming smoke-free institutions.

Co-sponsors of the award were the COPD Foundation, the Consortium for a Healthier Miami-Dade, the Tobacco Free Workgroup and the University of Miami’s Area Health Education Center Program.

  • Jorge Zamudio and Diego Shmuels met with the Florida state coordinator for the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). This is a state-based system of health surveys that collects information on health risk behaviors, preventive health practices, and health care access primarily related to chronic disease and injury. For many states, the BRFSS is the only available source of timely, accurate data on health-related behaviors.

A question about COPD will be considered for the BRFSS questionnaires in Florida for the first time, beginning in 2011.