World No Tobacco Day is sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO). This year’s theme is “ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.”  Tobacco marketing in stores is a primary cause of youth smoking. Tobacco displays in stores give youth the impression that tobacco products are easily accessible and tobacco use is acceptable.

The research is clear. The more tobacco advertising kids see, the more likely they are to smoke. Communities are eager to protect kids from dangerous influences, yet the tobacco industry continues to wallpaper our local stores with flashy advertising and large tobacco displays.

World No Tobacco Day

Michael Khan, a Junior at Canisius High School and member of the Amherst Youth Consortium is a youth leader in Amherst. He says, “As a young person, I would like to say to adults: ‘We have seen enough’ tobacco marketing. There are too many stores with too much tobacco marketing. We don’t need to be bombarded with all these unhealthy messages.”

There is support from Amherst youth leaders such as Craig Schmidt, Co-President of the Williamsville East High School PTSA. He says “Communities such as Amherst, who are staunchly supportive of creating a caring, healthy environment for their youth, find the quantity of tobacco marketing posted in our local stores to be untenable. There is something we can do. Other communities have limited tobacco marketing in stores. It is an effective way to keep our kids from smoking.”

Youth smoking remains a significant problem in New York State where more than 100,000 high school students smoke and 22,500 kids under the age of 18 become new daily smokers each year.

Andrew Hyland, PhD, Chair of the Department of Health Behavior at Roswell Park continues, “Tobacco companies have a history of directly targeting their promotions to children. Our young people have been labeled as the ‘next generation’ of smokers. It is imperative that parents and community leaders send a strong message that dangerous tobacco marketing should be removed from stores where kids shop.”

“Reality Check youth of Erie and Niagara counties have seen enough. They want to elimination and reduce the tobacco industry’s manipulative marketing that monopolizes 80 percent of the space behind the counter at local convenience stores,” said Michelle Heller, Reality Check Coordinator of Erie and Niagara Counties.

For information about the World Health Organization and World No Tobacco Day, visit http://www.who.int/campaigns/no-tobacco-day/2013/event/en/

To learn more about  the harmful effects of tobacco marketing and local efforts to protect our kids, go to www.tobaccofree.wny.com.

Reality Check Students stood up and spoke out against Big
Tobacco on Kick Butts Day.

KeyOnna Miller, a Junior from Alden High School and Michelle Heller, Reality Check Coordinator, Erie and Niagara Counties appeared on AM Buffalo, WKBW-TV.

Studies show that kids are twice as likely as adults to notice and remember retail tobacco advertising. And, since the tobacco industry spends millions of dollars a day to market its deadly products in stores where teens shop, our kids are exposed to high levels of tobacco marketing everyday.

Please join us. Sign our petition and take a stand to protect our kids from tobacco marketing in stores!

BUFFALO, NY — Light daily smokers, those who smoke fewer than 10 cigarettes per day, have greater success quitting when provided stop-smoking medications and assisted by counselors. Those are the key conclusions of research conducted by scientists at Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) and the Medical University of South Carolina and published in the latest issue of Nicotine and Tobacco Research.

While the number of light smokers is increasing, most studies have focused on the benefits of counseling and nicotine-replacement therapy (NRT) for moderate and heavy smokers. This study found that light smokers who contacted a telephone quitline are typically interested in using NRT and achieve higher quit rates than those who were not offered NRT.

“While many studies have demonstrated the efficacy of nicotine medications for smoking cessation, very few have examined these questions in lighter smokers, as we have done,” says Martin Mahoney, PhD, MD, Associate Professor in the departments of Health Behavior and Medicine at RPCI and senior study author. “A unique strength of this study is the use of an experimental design implemented in a real world community setting of a state quitline.”

The study evaluated long-term quitting success among 1,365 adult tobacco users who smoked less than 10 cigarettes daily and who contacted the New York State Smokers’ Quitline for assistance between January and July 2010. All smokers received two calls from trained stop-smoking counselors, and about half of the smokers were provided with stop-smoking medications.

Nearly all the light smokers offered the free nicotine medications wanted the medications, and 75% of smokers rated the offer of a free supply of NRT as very important to their quit effort. The quit rates measured at seven months were 20% higher in the group offered the NRT (33%) compared with those who received only counseling (27.2%).

“These findings demonstrate that low-level daily smokers are interested in and benefit from using NRT when they make a quit attempt,” said Laurie Krupski, first author on the study and a Training and Development Coordinator in the Department of Health Behavior at RPCI.

“Smoking cessation is a highly cost-effective intervention because the health consequences of smoking are enormously expensive and compound over time. This study demonstrates that quitline counseling in combination with NRT is a good return on investment,” said K. Michael Cummings, PhD, MPH, Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavior Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina.

This work was supported in part by the New York State Department of Health and by the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Center Support Grant to RPCI (P30CA016056).

http://www.roswellpark.org/media/news/roswell-park-leaders-comment-final-new-york-state-budget

‘People power’ beat Tonawanda Coke

BY: Donn Esmonde

Power to the people. Technically, it was the U.S. Attorney’s Office that brought the case and federal and state regulators who gathered the evidence that ultimately brought down Tonawanda Coke. But make no mistake: None of that would have happened, had not the people living downwind of the toxin-spewing plant learned to stand up and fight.

A lot of folks deserve credit. But it was so-called ordinary people – with help from an organizer fresh out of college – whose outcry paved the path to victory. The company was convicted Thursday of 14 counts of polluting the air and ground of the surrounding neighborhood. Plant official Mark Kamholz faces up to 75 years in jail. He and the company are looking at upward of $200 million in fines.

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Reality Check Students at Global Concepts Charter High School stood up and spoke out against Big Tobacco on Kick Butts Day. The events and demonstrations were held at the Global Concepts Charter High School cafeteria located at 30 Johnson Street, Lackawanna, NY.

Students used black trash bags to represent body bags as a visual display of the deadly consequences of tobacco use.  Flash mobs entertained and informed students about the influence of tobacco marketing in stores. Reality Check students talked with their peers about tobacco prevention.

“Global Concepts Charter High School welcomed the tobacco prevention programs offered by the New York State Reality Check program,” said Tracy McGee, School Principal. “This program with its peer-to-peer education format is an effective way to help prevent and reduce youth tobacco use.”

Each year 22,500 kids under 18 become new daily smokers in New York. Tobacco use remains a pediatric epidemic in the United States, according to a recent U.S. Surgeon General’s report.  Every day kids in every community across the state are exposed to an excessive amount of tobacco marketing at retail locations including convenience stores, bodegas and pharmacies.

“Young people want to fit in with their peers. Images in tobacco marketing make tobacco use look appealing to this age group. At Reality Check, we work with youth to dispel myths and change norms about the acceptability of tobacco use,” said Michelle Heller, Reality Check Coordinator for Erie and Niagara Counties.

“Kids think smoking is okay since the stores we go to are filled with tobacco products and ads, but we want to change that,” added Global Concepts Charter High School student, Moriah Nedkova.

“Kick Butts Day is a great time to raise awareness about the impact of tobacco promotion on our youth. Reducing the number of tobacco retailers or covering up the ubiquitous display of tobacco will help reduce the rate of youth smoking,” said Anthony Billoni, Director of the Erie-Niagara Tobacco-Free Coalition.

Kick Butts Day, organized by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, is a national day of activism that empowers youth.  More than 1,000 events are being held in communities across the United States and around the world.

Mayor Bloomberg and the New York City Council announced a proposal that would restrict the use of tobacco displays in New York City retail stores. This will make New York City the first city in the United States to take this bold step to protect youth from Big Tobacco’s marketing tactics.

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