The Iowa Tobacco Prevention Alliance (ITPA) and the American Lung Association will co-host the Action to Quit! Iowa Employers’ Tobacco Cessation Summit on Oct. 19 in Des Moines.

The summit will include benefits decision makers from Iowa’s largest employers, insurance brokers and providers and tobacco-control advocates to focus on increasing access to employee tobacco cessation benefits and lowering health-care costs by reducing the use of tobacco in the workplace. Michael Burke, treatment program coordinator of the Mayo Clinic Nicotine Dependence Center, and Dr. Joseph Zabner, chief of pulmonary and occupational medicine at the University of Iowa, will speak. Iowa business leaders will also speak about the return on investment of smoking cessation.

According to the ITPA, smoking annually causes $1 billion in preventable health-care costs in Iowa, of which $301 million is paid by the state Medicaid program. Additionally, 83 percent of Iowans who smoke report that they want to quit.

The free event will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the State Historical Building, 600 E. Locust St., and will be limited to the first 60 to register. Lunch will be provided. To register, visit the Iowa Tobacco Prevention Alliance website, www.iowatpa.org, and click on the events tab.