More time at home during COVID-19 shouldn’t mean more exposure to secondhand smoke
Many families are spending more time at home to stem the spread of COVID-19, but for too many, home isn't a safe and healthy environment. While the vast majority of New York residents have a "no smoking in the house" rule, for those living in apartments and other multi-unit housing, the decision to have a smoke-free home is not theirs alone. Secondhand smoke drifts into units from common areas, through doorways, plumbing and ventilation systems, creating unhealthy living conditions for everyone in the building. Secondhand smoke contains hundreds of toxic chemicals, including more than 60 carcinogens. Exposure to secondhand smoke can...
Albany Times Union Commentary on Menthol
CDTFC's Community Engagement Coordinator, Theresa Zubretsky, wrote a commentary piece published in the Albany Times Union today focusing on the disproportionate impact of menthol-flavored tobacco use on African Americans. Read her commentary piece below. Menthol-flavored tobacco is killing African Americans Black History Month highlights previously unsung contributions of African Americans to our nation's success. In tobacco control, we have our own unsung heroes, African American men and women battling tirelessly to end the death and disease caused by the tobacco industry's relentless and targeted marketing of menthol cigarettes to the...
Communities Take Action Against Menthol
After decades of the tobacco industry marketing menthol to African Americans, we need look no further than our own local neighborhoods for evidence of their continued efforts. Capital District Tobacco-Free Communities collects data through tobacco retailer observations, telephone surveys, community conversations, and mapping to help determine what communities are at highest risk of exposure to tobacco marketing and to tobacco use in the Capital District. The consistent finding is that neighborhoods with a high percentage of low-income residents and residents of color tend to have: More tobacco...
The African Americanization of Menthol
It is no accident that African Americans disproportionately smoke menthol cigarettes and suffer and die more than whites from tobacco-related disease. Dating as far back as the 1950’s, the tobacco industry was developing deliberate strategies to increase tobacco sales to the African American community. They endeavored to curry favor among African American leaders and organizations while simultaneously ramping up their efforts to increase menthol product appeal to the African American community. The tobacco industry was one of the first to hire and promote Blacks. They advertised in cash-strapped African American...
Menthol Contributes to Health Disparities between Black and White Americans
In 2013, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a report finding that menthol cigarettes lead to greater addiction and decreased success in quitting smoking. The cooling and anesthetic effect of menthol allows smokers to inhale more deeply and hold the smoke in the lungs longer, increasing their exposure to the dangerous chemicals in cigarette smoke. As a result, menthol smokers show significantly higher levels of nicotine addiction compared with non-menthol smokers, increasing the health risks of tobacco use for menthol users and making quitting more difficult. Nearly 9 out of 10 adult African American smokers smoke menthol,...
To the left is a typical tobacco product display. If you don’t use tobacco, you may not even notice, but kids do. Kids see. Kids notice. Kids remember. In fact, kids are more than twice as likely as adults to notice and remember retail tobacco marketing.