WHAT’S NEW

Take a visual tour of the local tobacco marketing landscape
Tobacco ads and displays are so ubiquitous, most non-smoking adults don’t even notice them. But once you DO notice, you’ll wonder how you could possibly have missed them. Noticing how pervasive and aggressive tobacco marketing is also makes it easier to understand why it has such a profound impact on adult and youth tobacco use. That’s why we chose to summarize the findings from our most recent round of Licensed Tobacco Retailer store observations into a visual tour of what tobacco marketing and promotion actually looks like in the City of Albany’s highest poverty neighborhoods. These neighborhoods have a disproportionate number of tobacco retailers as compared to lower poverty neighborhoods and that means there is also a disproportionate presence of tobacco marketing and promotion. In addition to tobacco product displays that typically...

New York Celebrates 20th Anniversary of the Clean Indoor Air Act
Gen Z’ers have never known the ritual of renting a movie at Blockbuster, burning a CD or having to develop film before you can view a photo. Such is the power of technological progress. New York State Gen Z’ers have also never known the ritual of being asked “Smoking or non-smoking?” upon entering enter a restaurant, nor have they worked a part-time or summer job in a smoke-filled environment. Such is the power of tobacco-control progress. July 24, 2023, marked the 20th anniversary of New York state’s Clean Indoor Air Act (CIAA), a law that transformed nearly all indoor workplaces, including bars and restaurants, into smoke-free environments and provided protection for all workers from the health consequences associated with secondhand smoke exposure. Improved health for hospitality workers was immediate, with particularly notable...

Community Spotlight Video: Rivquah
As part of our local education efforts, we’re pleased to release a video testimonial from Rivquah Caldwell, a Schenectady resident who experienced firsthand the suffering and harms caused by tobacco use as one of several members of her family who all smoked menthol cigarettes. Her voice, and that of others like her, need to be heard. Please watch, listen and share.
