Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Northwest Georgia Public Health offers free cancerscreenings at Rome Braves game May 25

Media release: The Rome Braves, Northwest Georgia Public Health and the Northwest Georgia Regional Cancer Coalition are partnering to provide free oral-head-and-neck cancer screenings Friday, May 25, 7 PM, at State Mutual Stadium for attendees at the Braves home game against the Asheville Tourists. The screenings will be available inside the stadium gates on the front concourse.

Northwest Georgia Public Health's Lisa Grehhbeby says a key preventive message of her current Tobacco-Use Prevention campaign is "athletes and tobacco do not play together." Greeby notes "tobacco use can cause numerous health problems, including cancer, and chewing tobacco, often associated with baseball, has been shown to cause mouth cancer."

Northwest Georgia Regional Cancer Coalition Executive Director Gena Agnew says her organization's goal is to prevent cancer as well as detect existing cancers earlier. "This screening event fits right in with our goals as well as our cancer-awareness and tobacco prevention-and-cessation activities."

Oral, Head and Neck Cancer is cancer that arises in the nasal cavity, sinuses, lips, mouth, thyroid glands, salivary glands, throat or voice box. Greeby says tobacco and alcohol use are the leading causes and that "tobacco use alone increases your risk of head-and-neck cancer by fifteen times compared to a non-smoker."

For more information on Oral, Head and Neck Cancer, visit http://www.headandneck.org

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