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Indiana listed as one of the 12 states forming the “Tobacco Nation”
Map of the Tobacco Nation
Indiana is now amongst twelve states that is now forming what is being referred to as the “tobacco nation.” Other states include: Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee, Oklahoma, and West Virginia. On average it was discovered that a smoker living within one of the tobacco nation states smokes roughly 26 more packs of cigarettes within a years time than the average smoker. For more information, visit the truth initiative’s article by visiting the following link: https://truthinitiative.org/TobaccoNation
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Surgeon General Report 2016 – E-Cigarette Use Among Youth & Young Adults
On December 8, 2016 Vice Admiral Vivek H. Murthy, U.S. Surgeon General, released “E-Cigarette Use Among Youth and Young Adults.” This is the first comprehensive federal government review of the public health impact of e-cigarettes on U.S. youth and young adults and comes amid alarming rates of youth and young adult use of e-cigarettes.
Key points from the report include:
- E-cigarettes are now the most commonly used tobacco product among youth. E-cigarette use is strongly associated with the use of other tobacco products among youth and young adults, including combustible tobacco products such as cigarettes.
- The use of products containing nicotine poses dangers to youth, pregnant women and fetuses. The use of products containing nicotine in any form among youth, including e-cigarettes, is unsafe.
- E-cigarette aerosol is not harmless. It can contain harmful and potentially harmful ingredients, including nicotine.
- E-cigarettes are marketed by promoting flavors and using a wide variety of media channels and approaches that have been used in the past for marketing conventional tobacco products to youth and young adults.
Calls to Action from the national, state and local levels include:
- Continuing to regulate e-cigarettes at the Federal level to protect public health,
- Raising and strongly enforcing minimum age-of-sale laws for all tobacco products, including e-cigarettes
- Incorporating e-cigarettes into smoke-free policies
- Regulating e-cigarette marketing
- Sponsoring high-impact media campaigns to educate the public on the harms of e-cigarettes among young people
- Expanding research efforts related to e-cigarettes
In Indiana:
- In 2014, 5.2% of middle school students and 15.6% of high school students in Indiana reported current (past 30 day) use of e-cigarettes.
- E-cigarette use increased approximately four-fold among both middle and high school students between 2012 and 2014.
- About half (50.4%) of high school e-cigarette users and 37.9% of middle school e-cigarette users also report current cigarette use.
What you can do in the coming days and weeks:
- Share the SGR 2016 website, attached social media graphics, and other resources on social media channels and with school, parents, youth serving groups and other coalition members.
- Share this page, or Breathe In Wayne County social media posts.
- If you are a parent, talk to your kids about e-cigarettes.
Click to download the Fact Sheet and click here to go to the Surgeon General’s Executive Summary.
The full report can be found here
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FDA Warning Letters Issued for Selling E-cigarettes, E-liquids, and Cigars to Minors
E-cigarette and hookah use by youth continues to rise dramatically, and cigar use remains high. To protect kids from a lifetime of nicotine addiction, FDA has taken steps to restrict youth access to all tobacco products. Provisions restricting the sale of newly regulated tobacco products to kids went into effect August 8 and are being enforced. FDA announced today it has taken action against 55 tobacco retailers [PDF – 66KB]
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Tobacco targets less affluent, addicted
Some of the tactics that the tobacco industry used in the 80’s and 90’s to target individual consumers and service organizations: blankets branded with their logos donated to homeless shelters, free samples offered to homeless shelters and mental hospitals, and sponsored appearance of brands being smoked by homeless activists in movies.
As noted by the industry’s own reports, more educated and affluent people were giving up tobacco products because of the rise Read More
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FDA Extends Its Authority to Include E-cig, Cigars, and Other Types of Tobacco
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration finalized a rule extending its authority to all tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, cigars, hookah tobacco and pipe tobacco, among others. This historic rule helps implement the bipartisan Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009 and allows the FDA to improve public health and protect future generations from the dangers of tobacco use through a variety of steps, including restricting the sale of these tobacco products to minors nationwide.
Before today, there was no federal law prohibiting retailers from selling e-cigarettes, hookah tobacco or cigars to people under age 18. Today’s rule changes that with provisions aimed at restricting youth access, which go into effect in 90 days, including:
- Not allowing products to be sold to persons under the age of 18 years (both in person and online);
- Requiring age verification by photo ID;
- Not allowing the selling of covered tobacco products in vending machines (unless in an adult-only facility); and
- Not allowing the distribution of free samples.
Today’s rule also requires manufacturers of all newly-regulated products, to show that the products meet the applicable public health standard set forth in the law and receive marketing authorization from the FDA, unless the product was on the market as of February 15, 2007. The tobacco product review process gives the agency the ability to evaluate important factors such as ingredients, product design and health risks, as well as their appeal to youth and non-users.
Today’s actions will subject all manufacturers, importers and/or retailers of newly-regulated tobacco products to any applicable provisions, bringing them in line with other tobacco products the FDA has regulated under the TCA since 2009.
These requirements include:
- Registering manufacturing establishments and providing product listings to the FDA;
- Reporting ingredients, and harmful and potentially harmful constituents;
- Requiring premarket review and authorization of new tobacco products by the FDA;
- Placing health warnings on product packages and advertisements; and
- Not selling modified risk tobacco products (including those described as “light,” “low,” or “mild”) unless authorized by the FDA.
Please see the following link to the FDA News Release: FDA takes significant steps to protect Americans from dangers of tobacco through new regulation. For additional information, including supporting documents, please see the link: Extending Authorities to All Tobacco Products, Including E-Cigarettes, Cigars, and Hookah
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FDA launches new campaign on the dangers of smokeless tobacco among rural teens
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced today it is expanding its award-winning “The Real Cost” campaign to educate rural, white male teenagers about the negative health consequences associated with smokeless tobacco use. For the first time, messages on the dangers of smokeless tobacco use – including nicotine addiction, gum disease, tooth loss, and multiple kinds of cancer – are being highlighted through the placement of advertisements in 35 U.S. markets specifically selected to reach the campaign’s target audience.
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Kick Butts Day in Wayne County, Indiana and Across the Nation Boost Efforts to Make the Next Generation Tobacco Free
Kick Butts Day is a national day of activism that empowers youth to stand out, speak up and seize control against Big Tobacco. This year’s Kick Butts Day is March 16, 2016. More than 1,000 events are expected to take place in schools and communities across the United States and even around the world. Read Full Post
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Chicago Takes Bold Action To Reduce Tobacco Use: Raises Tobacco Age to 21, Makes Baseball Tobacco-Free
WASHINGTON, DC – The Chicago City Council today has taken bold action to protect young people from tobacco addiction and save lives by approving multiple measures, including increasing the city’s tobacco sale age to 21 and eliminating smokeless tobacco use at sporting events – including at Wrigley Field and U.S. Cellular Field, home of the Cubs and White Sox. With these actions, Chicago continues to provide national leadership in the fight against tobacco use, the nation’s No. 1 cause of preventable death. These measures will protect children, improve health, and save lives and health care dollars.
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It’s a Great Day for a (Tobacco-Free) Ballgame in Chicago
WASHINGTON, DC – Chicago today gave a powerful boost to the campaign to take tobacco out of baseball by becoming the fourth Major League city and the first in the Midwest to make its baseball stadiums tobacco-free. The City Council approved an ordinance to eliminate smokeless tobacco use in professional and amateur baseball and other sporting events – including Wrigley Field and U.S. Cellular Field, home of the Cubs and White Sox.