Last month New York's health commissioner visited our area.
He learned about some of the healthy-living initiatives inspired by the Steps to A Healthier New York Program.
This week we dive into the issue of smoking...
Broome County is leaps and bounds ahead of many other counties in New York when it comes to smoking cessation programs.
Dr. Richard Daines, New York's Health commissioner says he's very impressed.
Daines says "they have some of the most innovative and actually teen developed tobacco cessation programs I've ever seen just one after the other."
Programs like the Binghamton Senators Dream Team.
Kids around the area wrote essays talking about why convenience stores shouldn't advertise tobacco.
Some of the winners were on hand to talk to the commissioner about the program.
"We showed him that our youth smoking rate is going down very quickly. Faster than some of the other counties and we're very happy with that." says Sharon Fisher, Tobacco Control Coordinator for the Broome County Health Department.
The commissioner also learned about some initiatives in area schools... Like Reality check.
He says the Steps to a healthier New York program is really making a difference.
"It just coordinates all kinds of things the schools, the workplaces, the county and city governments are doing a lot with that to coordinate things." says Daines.
And all of that coordination is working.
Leaving Broome County a little healthier and new york's health commissioner a little happier.
For this week's Steps to a healthier New York, I'm Jessica Light.