Big tobacco targets populations who experience minority stress, discrimination, stigma and other systemic harms with targeted advertising and promotions.
I am a public health professional with a specific interest in working with populations that have higher risks for poor health. I worked in HIV prevention for several years. I was naïve to big tobacco’s manipulations to hook vulnerable people when I started working in tobacco prevention. I did not know about the higher rates of smoking among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people back then. Now I know that for 20 years, more people with HIV have died from a tobacco related disease than directly from HIV.
Not only do LGBTQ+ adults use tobacco at higher rates, so do youth.
LGBTQ+ youth are already struggling to be all they can be — and vulnerable to using tobacco as a coping strategy. With tobacco companies targeting the most vulnerable among our youth, it’s important that we do all we can to make tobacco use less easy to begin.
Flavors make beginning to smoke or vape much easier. Students have been struggling to stay connected to their peers and to school during the past year. The tobacco industry knows this, and will stop at nothing to get new people hooked on their deadly products. Youth are the replacement market for others who have quit – or died young – because if kids get to be 21, they are much less likely to ever start. We need to do everything in our power to help all kids stay tobacco free. Tobacco does not taste great, menthol and mint, bubble gum and strawberry flavors all make trying and continuing tobacco use, including vaping, a lot easier.
I want a fighting chance for all youth and in particular for the youth of my community — the LGBTQ+ youth — to be all they can be. Ending all flavored tobacco products is one clear step to reduce big tobacco’s negative impact on vulnerable populations.
Joanne Joy,
Bowdoinham
A new generation of individuals is quickly becoming addicted to nicotine. Flavored tobacco products entice youth to begin e-cigarette use, leading to rapid addiction, when ordinary cigarettes never would have. Why are these electronic devices particularly dangerous, you might ask?
1) The teen brain is particularly vulnerable. The combination of the potency of nicotine products and the teen brain can lead to nicotine dependence in a matter of days or weeks with even occasional vaping.
2) The aerosol inhaled into the lungs contains toxic chemicals including nicotine, volatile organic compounds such as benzene, particulate matter, and trace metal elements. Most of these chemicals cause inflammation and lung damage and can exacerbate diseases such as asthma.
3) A serious acute lung injury known as EVALI, e cigarette or vaping-product associated lung injury, is not fully understood but is likely a chemical injury and can lead to hospitalization and even death in previously healthy individuals.
The rapid and widespread uptake of e-cigarettes in the adolescent population is very concerning. One-in-five high school students reporting use is unprecedented.
Those of us on the front line of caring for youth cannot keep up with the problem. I work with many adolescents that have developed an addiction to tobacco products and are struggling to quit.
Banning flavors and restricting marketing of these products is a strong and necessary step to protect the health of Maine youth. It is our responsibility to protect our children from known dangers. This is a real and present threat to the health of a generation of young people who, because of the allure of fun and colorful flavored products, will become addicted to tobacco and nicotine for years to come. Many will suffer for the rest of their lives because of these dangerous products. We have the power to change this trajectory right now. Think of the young people you know and love. We must help them not fall into the trap of addiction.
Dr. Deborah Hagler,
Harpswell
As a Primary care pediatrician and school physician I see first hand the devastating effects of flavored nicotine in my practice every day. Like many parents and health professionals, I came to understand the significance of flavored tobacco products well after the adolescent vaping epidemic was out of control in my community.
The trends are terrifying. By 7th grade the majority of my patients know someone who vapes, many of them in the home or in their school. My high school students speak of needing to avoid restrooms because of the rampant, uncontrolled vape use. While use of combustible nicotine products is almost unthinkable to the teens I see, they don’t bat an eye when asked about vaping, because in their world, it is everywhere. Tobacco companies have developed an array of menthol, candy, and dessert-flavored products in colorful packaging with the sole purpose of attracting new users and addicting them to tobacco. With sleek, covert packaging and fun flavors like Pop Tartz, the intent of the packaging is clear: Flavors are designed to hook kids and create a customer for life.
I can tell you with authority that kids are uniquely susceptible to nicotine addiction because their brains are still developing until age 26. Many teens are vaping the equivalent of one pack of cigarettes or more per day. Treating this kind of nicotine addiction is one of the most challenging things I do in my practice. Frequently these patients require the highest dose of nicotine replacement to have any chance of cutting down or quitting successfully. And as these teens are battling their own addiction, they are being constantly triggered by the use that occurs around them.
Our kids won’t win against the tobacco industry. They are hooked before they have a chance to understand the risk. Our children deserve our protection. Join me in taking a stand for Maine’s children by ending the sale of flavored tobacco products.
Thank you to Sen. Claxton, Rep. Meyer and members of the Joint Standing Committee on Health and Human Services who voted in support of LD 1550. Also, thank you to Gov. Mills for supporting this important legislation.
Dr. Alyssa Goodwin,
Brunswick
I am almost 76 years old and am a former smoker. I quit 40-plus years ago. I couldn’t even go through the night without a cigarette. I was awake at 2 a.m. every night to have a fix to get through the night. I started when I was about 13. Menthol was a big draw at the beginning, but I soon switched to Lucky Strikes and then to Marlboros, as I thought the filter would prolong my life and possibly even save me. It just got worse. On a trip to the Museum of Science one year, I noticed the display case on the way in contained two lungs. One from a smoker and one from a non-smoker. It was then that I decided I did not want to actively participate in my own death. It was the hardest thing I have ever done.
I have a grand niece who got hooked on flavored vaping. She will graduate from college this weekend. I have talked to her about quitting. She would have never picked up a cigarette as she was aware of both me and her grandmother’s struggle to quit. But when she started she did not believe flavored vapes were the same as cigarettes. She didn’t really know it contained nicotine, and now cannot quit. It saddens me and should you. She is a very smart and talented woman with so much to offer this state.
It pains me to see and hear about so many kids starting this because it tastes good. It is wrong to allow these products to be sold.
I am one of the lucky ones. I was part of a study several years ago at CMMC for former smokers and had a couple cat scans a year apart, and my lungs have healed to almost normal. But I believe all those years of smoking will still shorten my life. And I don’t want to go.
Kathy Wilson,
Brunswick
