Objective: To assess the impact on hospitality workers' exposure to secondhand smoke of New York's smoke-free law that prohibits smoking in all places of employment, including restaurants, bars, and bowling facilities. Design: Pre-post longitudinal follow up design. Settings: Restaurants, bars, and bowling facilities in New York State. Subjects: At baseline, 104 non-smoking workers in restaurants, bars, and bowling facilities were recruited with newspaper ads, flyers, and radio announcements. Of these, 68 completed a telephone survey and provided at least one saliva cotinine specimen at baseline. At three, six, and 12 month follow up studies, 47, 38, and 32 workers from the baseline sample of 68 completed a telephone survey and provided at least one saliva cotinine specimen. Intervention: The smoke-free law went into effect 24 July 2003. Main outcome measures: Self reported sensory and respiratory symptoms and exposure to secondhand smoke; self administered saliva cotinine specimens. Analyses were limited to subjects in all four study periods who completed a telephone survey and provided at least one saliva cotinine specimen. Results: All analyses were limited to participants who completed both an interview and a saliva specimen for all waves of data collection (n = 30) and who had cotinine concentrations ( 15 ng/ml (n = 24). Hours of exposure to secondhand smoke in hospitality jobs decreased from 12.1 hours (95% confidence interval (CI) 8.0 to 16.3 hours) to 0.2 hours (95% CI 20.1 to 0.5 hours) (p , 0.01) and saliva cotinine concentration decreased from 3.6 ng/ml (95% CI 2.6 to 4.7 ng/ml) to 0.8 ng/ml (95% CI 0.4 to 1.2 ng/ml) (p , 0.01) from baseline to the 12 month follow up. The prevalence of workers reporting sensory symptoms declined from 88% (95% CI 66% to 96%) to 38% (95% CI 20% to 59%) (p , 0.01); there was no change in the overall prevalence of upper respiratory symptoms (p , 0.16). Conclusion: New York's smoke-free law had its intended effect of protecting hospitality workers from exposure to secondhand smoke within three months of implementation. One year after implementation, the results suggest continued compliance with the law.

The purpose of the National Girls Collaborative Project is to extend the capacity, impact, and sustainability of existing and evolving girl-serving STEM projects and programs. This paper describes the underpinnings and design of the National Girls Collaborative Project (NGCP) and posits that the structured collaboration framework this organization foments may be a necessary component for our fi eld to move beyond our current levels of representation of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Initial results from the projects are described and related to nationwide efforts to increase women in STEM. INTRODUCTION/PROBLEM STATEMENT It is commonly recognized that the representation of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fi elds is too low both from a perspective of equal opportunity (Gowan & Waller, 2002; Sadker & Sadker, 1994) and for meeting the projected need of STEM professionals (Chubin, May & Babco, 2005). Studies show that the low representation of women in STEM professions begins as early as eighth grade, when twice as many boys than girls show an interest in STEM careers (Commission on the Advancement of Women and Minorities in Science, Engineering, and Technology Development, 2000), and continues in college, where women received only 21% of bachelor's degrees awarded in engineering, 27% in computer sciences, and 43% in physical sciences (National Science Board, 2006). Factors such as perceptions of careers, confi dence, role models, and career advice have been noted in the literature as contributing to the lack of females in information technology (Bartol & Aspray, 2006). Women constitute 45% of the workforce in the United States but hold 25% of science and engineering jobs and 29% of computer and mathematical occupations (U.S. Census Bureau, 2000). Many organizations and activities are designed with the sole purpose of addressing this problem. However, in spite of this investment, the nation has not experienced signifi cant gains in the representation of women in several key STEM fi elds, e.g., computer science, engineering, and physics. This is particularly true in engineering where, overall, women represent about 20% of undergraduate engineering students; in computer science, women's representation has actually decreased (National Science Board; 2000

The demographic profile of the biomedical workforce in the U.S. does not reflect the population at large, raising concerns that there will be insufficient trained researchers in the future, and the scope of research interests will not be sufficiently broad. To diversify and expand the pool of researchers trained to conduct research on cancer and cancer health disparities, a series of training activities to recruit and train primarily Hispanic students at both the undergraduate and graduate level were developed. The strengths of both a Hispanic Serving Institution and an NIH-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center were leveraged to develop appropriate research training and professional development activities. The career progression of the participants and degree completion rates was tracked, along with persistent interest in biomedical research in general and cancer and cancer health disparities research in particular for these underrepresented individuals. Finally, this report demonstrates that these training activities increased general knowledge about cancer among participants.

The war on cancer has been waged for nearly 40 years, yet the cancer burden remains high, especially among minority and underserved populations. One strategy to make strides in the war on cancer and its disparate impacts is to increase the diversity of the cancer research workforce. We describe an approach to recruit a diverse population of future cancer researchers from an undergraduate student population at a minority-serving land-grant institution. Specifically, we have addressed the following questions: Given the dearth of published reports of undergraduate cancer courses, is it possible for undergraduates at a land-grant institution (rather than a research or medical institution) to successfully learn cancer biology from a lecture-based course? Can we develop a template that has the potential to be used by others to develop and implement an undergraduate cancer course? Can such a course stimulate interest in careers in cancer research? Based on a learning gains analysis, students were able to learn cancer content and related skills, and based on student surveys, students' interest in cancer research was stimulated by course participation. We have identified aspects of our course development process that were critical for the successful development, implementation, and assessment of the course. INTRODUCTIONCancer represents a substantial healthcare and economic burden in the United States. It is the second leading cause of death in the United States (American Cancer Society, 2008), with 1.4 million diagnoses and 559,650 Americans dying of cancer in 2007. The cancer healthcare costs in 2006 were $206.3 billion (National Cancer Institute, 2008). It is also a disease that is not shared equally by all races and ethnicities. African Americans have the highest cancer mortality rates, and a 5-yr relative cancer survival rate that is 10% lower (at 57%) than that for Caucasians (at 67%; 1996 -2003 data presented by the American Cancer Society, 2008).Despite great strides in many areas of medicine over the past 60 years, cancer mortality has not decreased to the same extent as mortality from other diseases during this period (American Cancer Society, 2008). Because the burden of cancer remains high and disproportionately affects minority and underserved populations, there are compelling arguments for increasing the diversity of the cancer research workforce. As reviewed by Handelsman et al. (2007), groups with diverse membership solve problems more creatively than more homogeneous groups, suggesting that scientific advancement will be enhanced by increasing the diversity of the research workforce. In addition, increasing the pool of minority researchers and providers is repeatedly identified as a strategy to reduce or eliminate cancer disparities. For example, as referenced in Johnson et al. (1998), Newman et al. (2003), and Smedley et al. (2004, minority providers are more likely to serve minority and underserved communities, and a diverse faculty and trainee pool increase the cultural competency of all trainees. At...

Firefighters are called on to rescue people and protect property under serious and hazardous conditions. Some 100 firefighters die each year on duty, and another Key findings from the evaluation are that (1) small, volunteer departments have the greatest challenges to following safety guidelines; (2) existing resources limit safety practices; (3) gaps in knowledge and attitudes limit safety; (4) FFFIPP reports provide useful information but fire departments need additional information and in additional formats; (5) FFFIPP materials need to be better marketed and distributed; and (6) increasing awareness of FFFIPP investigations likely will improve safety practices. 80