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The deceitful tobacco industry must be held accountable. Voice your concerns to local officials to make a difference. Enter your name, choose your location, and your email will be directed to your mayor or county supervisors.
The manipulative, racist, and greedy tobacco industry is destroying the people and places I love. I’m outraged by the suffering, death, and destruction this industry has gotten away with.
Big Tobacco products kill 110 Californians each day – including people who don’t even use tobacco products. For every death, 30 more suffer from a terrible tobacco-related disease. Everyone’s health is threatened by secondhand smoke and vape, but the disproportionate effects tobacco products have on our communities of color and low-income populations is devastating.
All this doesn’t even touch on the environmental destruction caused by Big Tobacco products. From microplastics to toxic chemicals to electronic waste, these products are directly contributing to climate change and deforestation.
I’m proud that California voters took a major step in the fight against Big Tobacco by upholding the law that ends the sale of most flavored tobacco products, including vapes and menthol cigarettes. The new law protects the next generation and targeted communities from the tobacco industry’s addiction, death, and disease.
Even with this major accomplishment, we know Big Tobacco’s greed knows no bounds. In the past, the tobacco industry has come up with sneaky ways to get around public health efforts to put their profits over people’s lives.
I can no longer stand aside and watch Big Tobacco destroy my community. It’s time to end their destructive influence.
Send a tweet
The tobacco industry wants us to think that selling products that destroy, sicken, and kill is perfectly normal. It’s not. Send a tweet to voice your outrage – because it’s time for a new normal.
Connect with a local coalition
Enter your zip code to find out how to support or join organizations in your community that are fighting back against the tobacco industry in classrooms, neighborhoods, apartment complexes, and beyond.
Resources
- https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/about/osh/program-funding/pdfs/california-508.pdf
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Fast Facts. cdc.gov. https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/fast_facts/index.htm. Accessed March 23, 2022.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Tobacco-Related Disparities. cdc.gov. https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/disparities/index.htm. Reviewed December 3, 2021. Accessed March 24, 2022.
- Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids; American Lung Association; American Heart/Stroke Association; American Cancer Society; American Academy of Pediatrics. The Flavor Trap: How Tobacco Companies Are Luring Kids with Candy-Flavored E-Cigarettes and Cigars. Washington, DC: Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids; 2017.
- Ambrose BK, Day HR, Rostron B, et al. Flavored Tobacco Product Use Among US Youth Aged 12-17 Years, 2013-2014. JAMA. 2015;314(17):1871–1873. doi:10.1001/jama.2015.13802.
- U.S. Surgeon General. Surgeon General’s Advisory on E-cigarette Use Among Youth. e-cigarettes.surgeongeneral.gov. 2018. Accessed April 18, 2019.
- Harris B. The intractable cigarette 'filter problem'. Tob Control. 2011;20 Suppl 1(Suppl_1):i10-i16. doi:10.1136/tc.2010.040113.
- Prata JC. Airborne microplastics: Consequences to human health?. Environ Pollut. 2018;234:115-126. doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2017.11.043.
- Choy CA, Robison BH, Gagne TO et al. The vertical distribution and biological transport of marine microplastics across the epipelagic and mesopelagic water column. Sci Rep. 2019;9:7843. doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-44117-2.
- United Nations Environment Programme. Plastic planet: How tiny plastic particles are polluting our soil. unep.org. https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/plastic-planet-how-tiny-plastic-particles-are-polluting-our-soil. Published December 22, 2021. Accessed March 24, 2022.
- Smith M, Love DC, Rochman CM, Neff RA. Microplastics in Seafood and the Implications for Human Health. Curr Environ Health Rep. 2018;5(3):375-386. doi:10.1007/s40572-018-0206-z.
- Pauly JL, Stegmeier SJ, Allaart HA, et al. Inhaled cellulosic and plastic fibers found in human lung tissue. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 1998;7(5):419-428.
- Schwabl P, Köppel S, Königshofer P, et al. Detection of Various Microplastics in Human Stool: A Prospective Case Series. Ann Intern Med. 2019;171(7):453-457. doi:10.7326/M19-0618.
- Brownell KD, Warner KE. The perils of ignoring history: Big Tobacco played dirty and millions died. How similar is Big Food?. Milbank Q. 2009;87(1):259-294. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0009.2009.00555.x.
- World Health Organization, Tobacco and its environmental impact: an overview. 2017. https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/255574/9789241512497-eng.pdf. Accessed March 15, 2022.
- Van Schalkwyk MCI, Novotny TE, McKee M. No more butts. BMJ. 2019;367:l5890. Published 2019 Oct 23. doi:10.1136/bmj.l5890.
- Hendlin YH. Alert: Public Health Implications of Electronic Cigarette Waste. Am J Public Health. 2018;108(11):1489-1490. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2018.304699.
- Federal Trade Commission. Federal Trade Commission Cigarette Report for 2020. Washington, D.C.: Federal Trade Commission. 2021.
- De R. Juul Bought an Issue of a Science Journal. Here’s What the uhh ... Studies Say. VICE. https://www.vice.com/en/article/93yney/juul-bought-an-issue-of-a-science-journal-heres-what-the-uhh-studies-say. Published July 9, 2021. Accessed march 15, 2022.
- OpenSecrets. Industry Profile: Tobacco. Opensecrets.org. https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/industries/summary?cycle=2021&id=A02. Accessed March 16, 2022.
- https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/about/osh/program-funding/pdfs/california-508.pdf.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Fast Facts. cdc.gov. https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/fast_facts/index.htm. Accessed March 23, 2022.
- Villanti AC, Johnson AL, Ambrose BK, et al. Flavored Tobacco Product Use in Youth and Adults: Findings From the First Wave of the PATH Study (2013–2014). Am J Prev Med. 2017;53(2):139-151. doi:10.1016/J.AMEPRE.2017.01.026.
- Office of the U.S. Surgeon General. Know the Risks. E-cigarettes.surgeongeneral.gov. Retrieved March 11, 2019.
- Goriounova NA, Mansvelder HD. Short- and long-term consequences of nicotine exposure during adolescence for prefrontal cortex neuronal network function. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Med. 2012;2(12):a012120. Published 2012 Dec 1. doi:10.1101/cshperspect.a012120.
- Lee JG, Henriksen L, Rose SW, Moreland-Russell S, Ribisl KM. A Systematic Review of Neighborhood Disparities in Point-of-Sale Tobacco Marketing. Am J Public Health. 2015;105(9):e8-18.
- Yerger VB, Malone RE. African American leadership groups: smoking with the enemy. Tob Control. 2002;11(4):336–345. doi:10.1136/tc.11.4.336.