CDTFC Attends NYS Tobacco Control Program Partners Legislative Education Day at State Capitol
It was a successful day at the State Capitol on Tuesday, as CDTFC attended this year's NYS Tobacco Control Program Partners Legislative Education Day. CDTFC staff along with Capital District Reality Check youth and our partners from Community Health Programs talked with state lawmakers about how tobacco control efforts have successfully decreased New Yorkers’ tobacco use and smoking-related deaths and disease. However, substantial unmet needs remain as 28,200 adult New Yorkers still die every year from smoking. Learn more here. View pictures in our gallery below.
Tobacco products shouldn’t be sweet, cheap and easy to get
Menthol, along with other sweet, fruity and candy flavors in tobacco products make tobacco products taste better and feel less harsh on the throat, making them more appealing and easier for young people to use. Flavors also create the impression that these products are less harmful than they really are. More than 80% of youth who use tobacco products started with a flavored product and continue to use flavored products. New York State prohibited the sale of flavored e-cigarettes containing nicotine in 2020. But other flavored tobacco products remain ubiquitous. Menthol flavored cigarettes. Chew and spit tobacco in cherry, apple...
Community Spotlight: Tammy Miller
CDTFC is proud to announce the launch of our new video series, Community Spotlight, in which we’ll share stories from Capital District residents about the role tobacco has played in their lives or neighborhoods. Our first spotlight is on Tammy Miller who lives in Albany. Tammy and her family directly suffered from the tobacco industry’s aggressive and successful marketing of menthol cigarettes to the Black community. She began smoking at a young age and was also exposed to secondhand smoke from her parents, who were both smokers. Tobacco use exacted an enormous toll on their health. Tammy’s story is all too common and an...
Tobacco Use Takes Disproportionate Toll on LGBTQIA+* Lives
NYS has launched a new phase of the It's Not Just media campaign which exposes the tobacco industry's intentional efforts to increase menthol product appeal to the LGBTQIA+ community. LGBTQIA+ people use tobacco, including menthol cigarettes, at higher rates than people who are cisgender and straight. National data shows that people who identify as bisexual are twice as likely to start smoking or be current smokers; 35.5% of transgender people are current smokers compared to 14.9% of heterosexual adults; and black transgender youth use tobacco at six times the rate of black cis youth. Additionally, 51% of lesbian/gay and 46% of bisexual...
NYS just made public parks safer and healthier for everyone, but communities can do more!
NYS recently amended Public Health Law to prohibits smoking of tobacco and cannabis in state-owned parks and parks managed by local governments, effective October 13, 2022. Eliminating smoking in parks keeps the air healthy, prevents toxic tobacco litter from harming people, animals and the environment. It makes these spaces more accessible to people with weakened immune systems and respiratory diseases such as asthma, and to those who rely on the availability of safe public parks for recreation and socializing. The amendment provision can be viewed here: NYS Public Health Law, Section 1399-O-2. Already in place in NY is Public...
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.