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Three out of 10 Young Adult Tobacco Users are "Dual Users"
A new Legacy study finds that young adults are not only using cigarettes but also concurrently using more than one tobacco product, including little cigars and hookah. The study, published in the May issue of the Journal of Environmental and Public Health, looked at tobacco use patterns among young adults, and included an examination of those using cigarettes plus another tobacco product concurrently (dual use). According to the data, of the 23 percent of young adults who were current tobacco users, 30 percent reported dual use.
"We found that dual users report the same levels of smoking compared to cigarette only users, suggesting that the use of other tobacco products does not replace cigarette smoking or decrease the mean number of cigarettes smoked daily among young adults. This trend toward dual use - especially among young people - is disconcerting," said Jessica Rath, Director of Research and Evaluation for Legacy. "Tobacco companies are pushing new products that leave young adults faced with an array of tobacco products from which to choose. The fact that many are experimenting with these new products, while still smoking cigarettes, may have negative implications for public health," she said.
Read the full press release here.
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Family Friend or Family Threat?
Legacy and approximately a dozen national public health and advocacy organizations are urging Family Dollar to reconsider its decision to sell tobacco products in its stores nationwide. In a letter today to the CEO of Family Dollar, the groups said the announcement "comes as a dire disappointment to the nation's public health community."
For years, the tobacco industry has deliberately marketed tobacco brands to low socio-economic and minority youth and adults. Smoking is greatest among adults with working class jobs, low educational levels, low income, and those who are unemployed - groups that comprise the very communities Family Dollar serves. Since Family Dollar stores mainly operate in neighborhoods with low-income and middle income families, the company has the potential to increase access to the nation's deadliest consumer product.
"While the company has defended its policy as a business decision based on customer demand, Family Dollar has the unique opportunity to stand out as a company that is committed to keep customers healthy by not selling tobacco products," said Cheryl G. Healton, DrPH. "In fact, market research reveals that 75 percent of its customers are non-smokers," she added.
The letter to Family Dollar supports the efforts of Break Free Alliance and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids to engage the public in reversing this "ill-advised policy."
Read the full release here.
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New Study Confirms Menthol Cigarettes are a Starter Product for Young Smokers
 A new Legacy-funded study released online in the American Journal of Public Health adds to the evidence that menthol cigarettes can serve as a starter product for young smokers. Many in the public health community believe - and research has borne out - that menthol cigarettes serve as a starter product for youth to start smoking; deters smokers from quitting; and are marketed to minority communities that often bear a disproportionate burden of tobacco-related disease. Menthol is also the only characterizing tobacco flavor that was not banned by the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which came into effect nearly three years ago.
Researchers from the Schroeder Institute for Tobacco Research and Policies Studies (SI) at Legacy used data from the National Youth Smoking Cessation Survey, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, to examine patterns of menthol and nonmenthol use in adolescents and young adults ages 16-24. They found that young smokers are starting with menthol cigarettes and then switching to nonmentholated cigarettes after two years of smoking. Among young people who smoked menthol brands at baseline, the rate of switching to nonmenthol brands (15 percent) was twice as high as the rate of switching to menthol brands among baseline smokers of nonmenthol varieties (6.9 percent).
Public health groups like Legacy and SI have urged the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to consider the growing evidence against menthol products and take these products off the market in the interest of public health.
Read the full release here.
Read more about the issue here.
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Mountain State Moms Get New Quitting Help
In West Virginia, where smoking rates are higher than the national average, Legacy is helping local organizations give mothers the resources they need to quit smoking. Through the Legacy Partnership for Healthier Communities (LPHC), Legacy helped the Southern Coalfields Tobacco Prevention Network create smoking cessation programs for mothers in McDowell County, WV. In 2011, Legacy engaged the Center for Community Health Development - a recognized community-based evaluation center based at Texas A&M University - to develop a survey to reach 46 pregnant and post-partum women in order to gain more insight into their smoking behavior. They found an astonishing 34 percent of the women surveyed reported currently smoking, and 21 percent reported being former smokers. Fifty-four percent of pregnant mothers said they smoke, while only a quarter (25 percent) of the post-partum mothers smoke.
With training and technical assistance provided by Legacy, the LPHC group surveyed their smoking behaviors and then offered a tobacco cessation educational program for mothers. According to initial evaluation reports, their efforts have helped many of the women decide to quit smoking or alter the frequency of their smoking: 48 percent of mothers who reported recently quitting smoking indicated they quit after completing the educational program.
LPHC was initiated in 2010 to develop and raise awareness about local cessation projects. Stories like these inspire this work and are an example of how communities and organizations can work together to help more people make the important life-saving decision (for mother and baby) to quit.
Read more details from this Mothers' Day post on Dr. Cheryl Healton's blog.
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Big Results on the Small Screen
Legacy television campaigns continue to be an effective way to help smokers quit. An April 2012 study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, found that higher exposure to TV advertisements from Legacy was associated with less smoking. The study, called "The Effects of Smoking-Related Television Advertising on Smoking and Intentions to Quit Among Adults in the United States," looked at the influence of Legacy ads, state-sponsored ads, and pharmaceutical ads on quitting smoking. The study demonstrates that - with some ads - TV continues to be an effective tool through which to reach smokers and potentially change behaviors. Higher exposure to state and Legacy-sponsored ads were positively associated with intentions to quit, and those respondents who saw ads made a quit attempt in the past year. However, higher exposure to pharmaceutical company-sponsored cessation ads were negatively associated with having made a quit attempt.
Researchers from the Institute for Health Research and Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the Centre for Behavioral Research Cancer with the Cancer Council Victoria in Melbourne, Australia conducted the study.
To access the study, click here.
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Where the Wind Comes Sweeping Down the Plains: Legacy's Youth Activism Team on the Ground in Oklahoma
 For the third consecutive year, Legacy's Youth Activism team will be participating in the Oklahoma SWAT Leadership & Advocacy Camp. Sponsored by Cherokee Nation Healthy Nation, the Leadership & Advocacy Camp will focus on increasing the sustainability of SWAT chapters throughout the state. Sessions will include leadership and advocacy training, how best to utilize SWAT's new visual brand, youth and adult partnership training, and how to provide cross-site support to advance tobacco control efforts. The camp will include more than a dozen SWAT teams from around the state, with an expected attendance of more than 200 youth and adults.
The mission of the Oklahoma SWAT organization is to empower and unite youth to resist and expose Big Tobacco's lies while changing current attitudes about tobacco. The Youth Activism Team will provide training assistance during the camp's programming, which will take place at Camp Heart O'Hills in Welling, OK on Tuesday, May 29th to Thursday, May 31st.
For more information about SWAT, visit http://www.okswat.com For information about Legacy's involvement with the SWAT camp, please contact Bennie Patterson at bpatterson@legacyforhealth.org.
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Facts about Asthma and Tobacco
The 2004 Surgeon General's report warned Americans that smoking can cause asthma related symptoms, such as wheezing, among children and adolescents as well as cause poor asthma control among those who have asthma. Exposure to secondhand smoke can also cause more frequent and severe asthma attacks among children with the disease.
Just in time for National Asthma Awareness Month in May, Legacy is offering a new fact sheet on asthma and tobacco smoke for the nearly 25 million Americans who live with asthma and for the health care professionals who work and care for them. It includes information on asthma symptoms and diagnosis, prevalence, disparities and asthma-related consequences of smoking and secondhand smoke.
Click here to download.
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Shamima's Story
For years, Shamima Tauhid Anis watched her husband smoke, an expensive addiction and an addiction of which she did not approve. Long smoke breaks meant time away from the family, and a persistent cough meant the threat of tobacco-related disease. Read Shamina's story as well as the stories of others who have suffered from tobacco-related disease or watched friends and family battle addictions on MyLegacyStory.org. The site encourages individuals to submit personal stories about how tobacco has impacted them, and, hopefully, get more involved in Legacy's life-saving work to build a world where young people reject tobacco and anyone can quit.
Legacy is grateful for stories like Shamina's that continue to inspire and support our daily mission. On MyLegacyStory.org, Shamina not only shares how her husband is now a former smoker, but she also started a pledge page, made a donation, and is now asking others to join in her efforts. (Read Shamina's story here.)
Visit MyLegacyStory.orgto share your story today.
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