Letter to the editor from Brittany Bozzer, Reality Check Youth Outreach Coordinator.
Every year on October 13, we observe Seen Enough Tobacco Day to raise awareness about the impact of tobacco marketing on youth and minorities. The day of action was established by members of Reality Check, a youth-based program in New York State.
Locally, Reality Check youth from Tobacco-Free Genesee, Orleans, and Wyoming (TF-GOW) used their creative talents to express startling statistics and health outcomes that will inspire their community to protect children like them from the billions of dollars of tobacco marketing in places where kids can see it.
The tobacco industry has spent decades avoiding the truth to sell their products. Juul Labs, an American e-cigarette company, recently settled a lawsuit that exposed its role in fueling the youth vaping epidemic. The company’s deceptive and misleading marketing glamorized vaping using fruity flavors that appealed to youth. They even claimed their products were safer than cigarettes.
To date, the FDA has authorized 34 tobacco and menthol-flavored e- cigarette products, yet more than 6,000 illegal, often fruit-flavored, vapes are still widely available online and in stores—many targeted at minors.
And menthol is more than just a flavor in tobacco products. It is used to addict young people by making nicotine easier to inhale and harder to quit. It’s no wonder that 22.5 percent of high school youth use e-cigarettes and over half of youth smokers between
12 and 17 use menthol cigarettes.There are resources to help teens quit. Programs like "Drop the Vape" provide free, 24/7 support through text messaging, proven to increase quit rates. In fact, adolescents with a history of vaping are 35 percent more likely to quit after using a text message-based program. To participate, teens can anonymously text "Drop The Vape" to 888709. The American Lung Association also offers essential tools to help break the addiction cycle at lung.org/quit-smoking.
I hope parents, teachers, schools, elected officials and all the members of our community will join me and our Reality Check youth in declaring that we’ve Seen Enough Tobacco and Vaping. By working together, we can build a tobacco-free generation -- on October 13 and every day.
