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The unofficial start of summer is now behind us. With the new season, we eagerly await word from the Food and Drug Administration on its plan to extend authority over all tobacco products. It has been more than a year since the draft regulations were released. Last month, just after the one-year anniversary, Legacy joined 30 of our public health partners in a letter calling on President Obama to ensure his Administration moves swiftly to finalize the regulations. Read the letter here.
To bring further attention to the issue, Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and I co-authored a commentary that appeared in Roll Call. We asked "What's the hold up?" to protecting young people from tobacco products such as e-cigarettes, hookah and cigars. We will not rest until we make progress on this front.
Legacy also hosted a Capitol Hill briefing on May 4 to raise awareness of youth tobacco use trends, including lesser-known but lethal products such as cigars and hookah and why it is important to regulate the full array of tobacco products. Our panel of experts spoke about how tobacco use among young people has evolved and they warned attendees that we must be vigilant about the increased use of alternative tobacco products, even as cigarette smoking has declined. The day after our event, it was great to read an editorial in USA Today that reinforced many of the messages that our briefing highlighted.
Legacy also waded into popular culture with the finale of "Mad Men," the television drama about a 1960's New York ad agency which depicted an era when everyone smoked. It was gratifying to see an ending that dealt frankly with the deadly consequences of smoking.I penned an article for CNN.com about the end of the series detailing why it's critical to keep smoking depictions off-screen. Read the full article here.
In more popular culture news, I am happy to announce that the
truth�"Lip Sync Dat" super-cut is finally here! Hundreds of fans around the country sent us their take of "Left Swipe Dat." Read the full story and check out a compilation of their creativity in the video here.
Finally, as summer is starting, we have selected 13 new
truth tour crew members. The"tour riders" will interact with teens across the country educating them about the marketing tactics of the tobacco industry and the dangerous health effects, addictiveness and social consequences of tobacco use. Watch for updates next month on the 2015 tour.
Robin Koval
CEO and President, Legacy
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San Francisco has taken the lead in protecting baseball players and fans from the health risks of chewing tobacco. In a first-of-its-kind city- and county-wide action that bans chewing tobacco on baseball fields, including AT&T Park, elected officials sent an important message about protecting those who live and work in their community. AT&T Park is the home field of the San Francisco Giants.
Legacy congratulated the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and Mayor Lee for their commitment to the health of baseball players of all ages. The San Francisco ban will take effect on January 1, 2016 and will help Giants and other major league players set the right - and life saving - example for their young fans.
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Students at Carlsbad High School in Carlsbad, Calif. designed the winning skateboard deck in the third annual Vans Custom Culture competition, a partnership between truth� and Vans.
Carlsbad High School will receive $10,000 for its art program.
truth and Vans challenged 50 high schools to create a skateboard deck that shows what it looks like when we finish smoking for good. The design challenge was inspired by the belief that this is the generation that can end tobacco use. Last year 8 percent of teens still smoked; that's down from 23 percent in 2000.
Forty-one schools submitted designs in this year's competition. You can view the entries here.
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Legacy has opened a second funding opportunity for community colleges interested in adopting 100 percent smoke-free or tobacco-free policies.
The grants of up to $5,000 are part of a nationwide effort by Legacy to spur community colleges to action. Earlier this year, Legacy awarded one-year grants to 38 community colleges. With 99 percent of smokers starting before age 27, college campuses are critical partners to prevent young adults from starting tobacco use, to help tobacco users quit and to reduce exposure to secondhand smoke.
The deadline to apply for a grant is August 6. Grant applications must be submitted using Legacy's online application system. For more information, email communitycollege@legacyforhealth.org.
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Tobacco Regulatory Science examines point-of-sale compliance and enforcement under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. That is the law that provided the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with authority over tobacco products.
The analysis of data from FDA Civil Monetary Penalties and FDA Warning Letters between October 2010 and July 2013 showed that 96 percent of warning letters and 100 percent of Civil Monetary Penalties addressed sales to minors.
The Legacy research team utilized the Legacy Tobacco Viewer to support its analysis.The Legacy Tobacco Viewer is a new online tool for examining changes in FDA compliance check inspections over time. The tool is integrated with a portal which allows users to explore how compliance check inspections may be associated with a range of other factors. Users can zoom to their local area and bookmark their preferences as they overlay data sources and visualize the results.
The Legacy Tobacco Viewer web app is available at http://gis.americanlegacy.org/LegacyTobaccoViewer. Please be patient when first visiting the site as it may take as long as 30 seconds to load. The tool initially renders and clusters 22,000 data points. Users can tailor data layers to their needs after the first visit to the web page.
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Thirty-one public health and medical organizations, including Legacy, sent a letter to President Obama on April 28 urging his Administration to quickly finalize long-overdue rules covering all tobacco products, including electronic cigarettes, cigars and hookah, saying: "This process has already taken far too long. We cannot afford more delays that allow tobacco companies to target our kids with a new generation of tobacco products."
The letter reminded President Obama that the lack of federal oversight of tobacco products is putting the health of America's kids at risk. April 25 was the one-year anniversary of the issuance of proposed tobacco product regulations by FDA. Administration officials have hinted recently that final regulations would be forthcoming this summer.
The letter explains: "In the absence of regulation, we have seen irresponsible marketing of unregulated products such as cigars and electronic cigarettes, often using tactics and sweet flavors that clearly appeal to youth. It's no wonder use of e-cigarettes by youth has skyrocketed." You can read the entire text here.
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A "super-cut" video, featuring fans and online celebrities lip syncing their favorite parts of "Left Swipe Dat", is the latest release from the truth campaign.
truth invited "Left Swipe Dat" fans from across the country to put their personal twist on the popular song. The video clips they created have been included in a mash-up tribute you can watch here:
"Left Swipe Dat" calls attention to the impact of smoking in social photos. A social experiment about an online dating app showed that users were almost twice as likely to reject a prospective match if a profile photo included an image of smoking. Since the release of the video in February, #leftswipedat has been a number one trending topic across social platforms worldwide. The video has been viewed more than 39 million times. "Left Swipe Dat" now appears in the Urban Dictionary.
Didn't get enough of the original "Left Swipe Dat" yet? Watch the full video again!
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Detroit-based recording and performance artist Mike Ellison helped Legacy kick-off a series of Legacy-hosted activism events that will take place across the United States this summer.
Ellison and Legacy gathered students at two Detroit high schools - East English Village Preparatory Academy and Renaissance High School - to participate in interactive anti-tobacco performance art productions featuring live music, dance, spoken word and multi-media elements.
Activities are planned at schools and gatherings to educate and empower young people to create the first tobacco-free generation. A national summit in July will take place in Orlando, Fla., and provide training and tools to help youth activists combat the influence of tobacco in their local communities.
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The World Health Organization and its partners will mark World No Tobacco Day on May 31 with a call for nations around the globe to work together to end the illicit trade of tobacco products. In the US, the National African American Tobacco Prevention Network (NAAPTN) is making that day the first annual "No Menthol Sunday" in an effort to raise awareness about the devastating impact that mentholated tobacco products have on African American communities.
NAAPTN is creating an interfaith effort to stand against the sale of mentholated tobacco products in the US. The organization is asking faith leaders of all belief systems to use World No Tobacco Day to educate congregants about the facts about menthol in tobacco products such as cigarettes and cigars and its health hazards. More than 200 faith organizations are expected to participate in the event. NAAPTN has created a toolkit to assist faith communities and organizations interested in participation.
World No Tobacco Day began in 1988 as a way to highlight the health risks associated with tobacco use and the importance of effective policies to reduce tobacco consumption. This year the day will serve to demonstrate that illicit tobacco product trade is a major global concern across the realms of health, law, the economy and government. You can read more about World No Tobacco Day here.
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Legacy recently announced hires in two newly created leadership positions, in line with the organization's goal of creating the next smoke-free generation.
Lindsey Kozberg, former RAND Corporation external affairs chief, joined Legacy as its first Chief Communications Officer. Kozberg's experience spans the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. A lawyer by training, Kozberg is charged with building a strategic communications effort that supports Legacy's public education, research and evaluation, and community activism and engagement programs. Read more on Kozberg here.
Michael Cohen is the organization's first Vice President for Corporate Partnerships. He will be responsible for expanding the organization's relationships with for-profit partners with the potential to spread the life-saving messages of the truth campaign. Cohen joins Legacy from the Walt Disney Company where he worked since 1996. Read more on Cohen here.
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