Stop-Smoking Program Is Approved

The Inglewood school board Wednesday night approved a UCLA-sponsored smoking cessation program aimed at discouraging minority cigarette smokers from using what researchers call “the gateway drug.”

The three-year pilot program, led by UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, is one of five programs nationwide funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. The Inglewood project, which will receive $98,000, is the only one that will use the schools to reach adult smokers.

A steering committee made up of community members, UCLA researchers and school district officials will control the project, which will survey 2,000 parents and adult students in the Inglewood Unified School District.

High school and junior high school students will be recruited to participate in a special adolescent program, although the primary emphasis will be on adults.

Inglewood was selected because of its multi-ethnic population and the other substance abuse prevention programs already in the schools, said Barbara Berman, an investigator with UCLA’s Division of Cancer Control.