Letter: Flavored Tobacco Products and Children
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To the Editor:
As the school year begins, let's be aware that youth are being targeted by the tobacco industry. Big Tobacco is sweet talking our kids with products that are sweet, cheap, and easy to get. Fruit and candy flavors in little cigars, chewing tobacco, hookahs, electronic cigarettes and e-liquids attract youth and contain varying amounts of nicotine that can lead to nicotine addiction.
The tobacco industry has been producing these tobacco products using the same flavor chemicals found in candy and soft drink products like Life Savers, Jolly Ranchers, and Kool-Aid. Yet they are NOT harmless. The tobacco industry is using these flavors to attract youth to products that are highly addictive because they contain nicotine.
In fact, the U.S Surgeon General found that flavorings in smokeless tobacco products are part of a "graduation strategy" that encourages new users to start with flavored products with lower levels of nicotine and work their way up to more addictive products.
What can you do? Make sure young people know that these tobacco products contain nicotine and are not harmless. This is the time when youth are learning new and important information; as concerned adults, let’s make sure they learn that flavored tobacco products contain nicotine.
For more information and to learn how you can take action, visit GetOutraged.org or contact me at jbrewer@berkshireahec.org at 413-447-2417. Big Tobacco is trying to sweet talk our kids into a lifetime of tobacco addiction.
Joyce Brewer
Contract Manager, Tobacco-Free Community Partnership for
Berkshire AHEC
