From the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids -
Reynolds American Deceives Consumers by Marketing American Spirit Cigarettes As “Eco Friendly”
Statement of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights and Legacy
WASHINGTON, DC (July 25, 2011) – The Reynolds American tobacco company is once again deceiving consumers by running magazine ads that describe its Natural American Spirit cigarettes as “eco friendly.” This is yet another attempt by a tobacco company to downplay how deadly and addictive cigarettes truly are, this time by marketing a cigarette brand as environmentally friendly. Consumers should not be deceived: There is nothing healthy or environmentally responsible about Natural American Spirit cigarettes or any cigarettes.
The new “eco friendly” ads are running in women-oriented magazines such as Elle, Lucky and Marie Claire, continuing the tobacco industry’s long history of targeting women with advertising implying a less harmful cigarette. Natural American Spirit cigarettes are manufactured by a Reynolds subsidiary, Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company. We call on Reynolds American and the Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company to immediately end this deceptive ad campaign.
View the ads by Reynolds American/Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company:
http://tobaccofreekids.org/pressoffice/2011/americanspirit1.pdf
Natural American Spirit cigarettes are just as deadly as other cigarettes and contribute to the more than 400,000 deaths caused by smoking in the United States each year. Cigarettes also harm the environment. Cigarette smoke spews more than 7,000 chemicals into the environment, including hundreds that are toxic and at least 69 that cause cancer. According to calculations from researchers in this field and published in an issue of Tobacco Control funded by Legacy earlier this year, at least 5.6 trillion cigarettes are discarded into the environment worldwide annually. Cigarette filters and butts are the most common form of litter and are the most common debris item collected from beaches and inland waterways during Ocean Conservancy’s annual International Coastal Cleanup, with nearly two million cigarettes and cigarette butts picked up during the 2010 cleanup. Cigarette butts contain heavy metals that can leach into waterways, posing a threat to aquatic life.
Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company has faced legal action by several government agencies over advertising implying that Natural American Spirit cigarettes are less harmful. Prior to the current “eco friendly” campaign, Santa Fe has run ad campaigns claiming that its cigarettes contain “no additives” and are made with organic tobacco. In 2000, the Federal Trade Commission filed a deceptive advertising complaint and reached a settlement that required Santa Fe to add a disclaimer to its packages and advertising stating, “No additives in our tobacco does NOT mean a safer cigarette.” In 2010, attorneys general from 33 states and the District of Columbia, led by California, reached an agreement requiring Santa Fe to add a disclaimer stating, “Organic tobacco does NOT mean a safer cigarette.”
More information:
Tobacco Control journal: The Environmental Burden of Cigarette Butts:
http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/20/Suppl_1.toc
Monday, July 25, 2011
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Virginia Healthy Youth Day 2011
Virginia First Lady Maureen McDonnell and more than 5,600 children around the commonwealth will help the Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth (VFHY) celebrate its second annual Virginia Healthy Youth Day in a big way on Jan. 20!
Established by a Virginia General Assembly resolution, Virginia Healthy Youth Day is held every Jan. 20 by VFHY and promotes physical fitness, good nutrition and healthy lifestyles for Virginia’s children.
“Virginia Healthy Youth Day reminds us that being physically active should be a year-round goal for Virginia’s young people and not limited to just warm summer days,” says VFHY Executive Director Marty Kilgore.
Virginia First Lady Maureen McDonnell will be the keynote speaker at an hour-long Virginia Health Youth Day event on the lawn of the State Capitol from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. About 350 kids from Chesterfield County Public Schools will listen to Mrs. McDonnell and exercise with instructors from American Family Fitness. Other state officials in attendance will include Virginia Secretary of Health and Human Resources Dr. Bill Hazel, State Health Commissioner Dr. Karen Remley, state Sen. Ralph Northam and state Del. John O’Bannon.
In addition to the Virginia Healthy Youth Day celebration at the State Capitol, VFHY will sponsor about 20 other Virginia Healthy Youth Day events across the state on Jan. 20, from the coalmining country of far Southwest Virginia to the Chesapeake Bay and up to Northern Virginia. (See the complete list of statewide celebrations at www.vfhy.org.)
Thursday, December 2, 2010
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Wednesday, November 10, 2010
School Vending Machine Mini Grants
The Prevention Connections School Vending program is accepting applications for up to 75 mini-grants for $500 each to support a healthy vending initiative in Virginia Title I middle schools as well as high schools with at least a 40% enrollment rate in the school’s free and reduced lunch program.
This is a great opportunity for schools/students to look at what is offered in their vending machines during the school day.
To apply, visit www.preventionconnections.org.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Anti-Smoking Programs Are Slashed As Budget Constraints Force States to Trim Cessation Efforts, Rate of Adult Smokers Stops Declining
from The Wall Street Journal - November 8, 2010
By DAVID KESMODEL And BETSY MCKAY
Many cash-strapped U.S. states are slashing budgets for tobacco-prevention programs, raising alarms among public-health groups as the nation's progress toward getting adult smokers to quit has stalled.
The adult smoking rate was 20.6% in 2009, the same as a year earlier and largely unchanged since 2004, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That amounted to 46.6 million adult smokers in 2009.
States have cut their combined funding for smoking prevention in the current fiscal year to the lowest level since 1999, according to data gathered by a coalition of antismoking groups for a report that will be released later this month.
The $517 million allocated by states for tobacco prevention and cessation in fiscal-year 2011 is down 9.2% from $569 million a year earlier and 28% less than states spent in 2008, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a Washington advocacy group preparing the report, along with the American Lung Association and others.
The latest amount still exceeds the $300 million spent by states in fiscal 1999, when many programs were getting under way or accelerating their efforts following the landmark Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement in 1998 between 46 states and cigarette companies that was designed to help states recoup the cost of treating sick smokers. Under the agreement, the tobacco companies were to pay an estimated $246 billion over 25 years to the states, though states are allowed to spend their settlement dollars on needs other than tobacco prevention.
In fiscal 2010, In fiscal 2010, tobacco-settlement revenue amounted to an estimated $8.1 billion for all states.
Public-health experts and tobacco-control groups worry that states' recent spending reductions could further undermine efforts to counter tobacco-industry marketing, persuade smokers to quit and to deter young people from starting.
Tobacco use is linked to an estimated 443,000 deaths a year in the U.S., making it the nation's leading cause of preventable death, according to the CDC. A decline in youth smoking rates has also slowed since 2003.
"There's a risk of a setback," CDC Director Thomas Frieden said of the funding cutbacks. "The data are very clear. The more we invest in tobacco control, the fewer people smoke, and that prevents illness, disability, deaths and healthcare costs."
He cited California as an example. The state has run a comprehensive tobacco-control program since 1989 that includes anti-smoking advertising campaigns, toll-free "quit lines" that people use to talk to cessation counselors, and other measures. California's adult smoking rate fell to 12.9% in 2009—the second-lowest in the nation after Utah—from 22.8% in 1988. Several other states reduced their smoking rates by a third or more since the late 1990s after implementing similar programs, Mr. Frieden said.
The spending cutbacks come as the federal government has increased spending on tobacco prevention, with more than $191 million of short-term grants to states and communities in recent months from the stimulus bill and the national health-care overhaul. The Food and Drug Administration also has new authority to regulate tobacco, including restricting advertising and putting new warning labels on tobacco products.
Smoking-rate declines have stalled in several states that have cut prevention dollars. Ohio trimmed its smoking rate by five percentage points between 2001 and 2005, when it was allocating as much as $60 million a year to tobacco prevention. In the next four-year span, when its funding dropped to as low as $6 million a year, its smoking rate fell by two points—to 20.3% in 2009.
In its current fiscal year, Ohio has $2.3 million of state funds—money unspent from previous master-settlement revenue—allocated to prevention. It has about another $3 million from federal funds, some of which are temporary.
Mari-jean Siehl, chief of Ohio's tobacco-use prevention and cessation program, said she doesn't have money to continue the state's tobacco quit-line program in fiscal 2012. "With little to no marketing or educational budget, it's really tough to get the word out about the quit line and some of the other resources we have," Ms. Siehl said.
Shelly Kiser, an Ohio-based antismoking advocate for the American Lung Association, said "the funding we have right now [in Ohio] is like putting a drop of water on a burning fire. It doesn't have a lot of impact."Washington state slashed its smoking rate 34% over a decade, seeing it drop to 14.8% in 2009, following consistent funding of media campaigns targeting low-income people and other high-risk groups, a quit line that has fielded 150,000 callers since 2000, school programs, and other efforts. State spending on the program reached $27.2 million in 2007.
Now, with the state facing a projected $4.8 billion budget deficit for the next two fiscal years, it is redistributing funding for the state tobacco-control program to local health departments for their general use. The program will be left with about $1.4 million of federal funding for fiscal 2012, said Mary Selecky, the state's secretary of health.
Her team will pursue "very, very targeted work" to reduce smoking among low-income groups, she said, adding, "We're going to do the best with what we have."
By DAVID KESMODEL And BETSY MCKAY
Many cash-strapped U.S. states are slashing budgets for tobacco-prevention programs, raising alarms among public-health groups as the nation's progress toward getting adult smokers to quit has stalled.
The adult smoking rate was 20.6% in 2009, the same as a year earlier and largely unchanged since 2004, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That amounted to 46.6 million adult smokers in 2009.
States have cut their combined funding for smoking prevention in the current fiscal year to the lowest level since 1999, according to data gathered by a coalition of antismoking groups for a report that will be released later this month.
The $517 million allocated by states for tobacco prevention and cessation in fiscal-year 2011 is down 9.2% from $569 million a year earlier and 28% less than states spent in 2008, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a Washington advocacy group preparing the report, along with the American Lung Association and others.
The latest amount still exceeds the $300 million spent by states in fiscal 1999, when many programs were getting under way or accelerating their efforts following the landmark Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement in 1998 between 46 states and cigarette companies that was designed to help states recoup the cost of treating sick smokers. Under the agreement, the tobacco companies were to pay an estimated $246 billion over 25 years to the states, though states are allowed to spend their settlement dollars on needs other than tobacco prevention.
In fiscal 2010, In fiscal 2010, tobacco-settlement revenue amounted to an estimated $8.1 billion for all states.
Public-health experts and tobacco-control groups worry that states' recent spending reductions could further undermine efforts to counter tobacco-industry marketing, persuade smokers to quit and to deter young people from starting.
Tobacco use is linked to an estimated 443,000 deaths a year in the U.S., making it the nation's leading cause of preventable death, according to the CDC. A decline in youth smoking rates has also slowed since 2003.
"There's a risk of a setback," CDC Director Thomas Frieden said of the funding cutbacks. "The data are very clear. The more we invest in tobacco control, the fewer people smoke, and that prevents illness, disability, deaths and healthcare costs."
He cited California as an example. The state has run a comprehensive tobacco-control program since 1989 that includes anti-smoking advertising campaigns, toll-free "quit lines" that people use to talk to cessation counselors, and other measures. California's adult smoking rate fell to 12.9% in 2009—the second-lowest in the nation after Utah—from 22.8% in 1988. Several other states reduced their smoking rates by a third or more since the late 1990s after implementing similar programs, Mr. Frieden said.
The spending cutbacks come as the federal government has increased spending on tobacco prevention, with more than $191 million of short-term grants to states and communities in recent months from the stimulus bill and the national health-care overhaul. The Food and Drug Administration also has new authority to regulate tobacco, including restricting advertising and putting new warning labels on tobacco products.
Smoking-rate declines have stalled in several states that have cut prevention dollars. Ohio trimmed its smoking rate by five percentage points between 2001 and 2005, when it was allocating as much as $60 million a year to tobacco prevention. In the next four-year span, when its funding dropped to as low as $6 million a year, its smoking rate fell by two points—to 20.3% in 2009.
In its current fiscal year, Ohio has $2.3 million of state funds—money unspent from previous master-settlement revenue—allocated to prevention. It has about another $3 million from federal funds, some of which are temporary.
Mari-jean Siehl, chief of Ohio's tobacco-use prevention and cessation program, said she doesn't have money to continue the state's tobacco quit-line program in fiscal 2012. "With little to no marketing or educational budget, it's really tough to get the word out about the quit line and some of the other resources we have," Ms. Siehl said.
Shelly Kiser, an Ohio-based antismoking advocate for the American Lung Association, said "the funding we have right now [in Ohio] is like putting a drop of water on a burning fire. It doesn't have a lot of impact."Washington state slashed its smoking rate 34% over a decade, seeing it drop to 14.8% in 2009, following consistent funding of media campaigns targeting low-income people and other high-risk groups, a quit line that has fielded 150,000 callers since 2000, school programs, and other efforts. State spending on the program reached $27.2 million in 2007.
Now, with the state facing a projected $4.8 billion budget deficit for the next two fiscal years, it is redistributing funding for the state tobacco-control program to local health departments for their general use. The program will be left with about $1.4 million of federal funding for fiscal 2012, said Mary Selecky, the state's secretary of health.
Her team will pursue "very, very targeted work" to reduce smoking among low-income groups, she said, adding, "We're going to do the best with what we have."
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
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Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Prevention Connections Offers Safe Routes to School Grants
Prevention Connections’ Safe Routes to School (SRTS) program is accepting applications for mini-grants of $2,000 for communities to sponsor a Walk and Bike to School event. Safe Routes to School is a federal program designed to help children to be more physically active and can assist schools and communities struggling with safety, transportation costs and traffic challenges.
The goals of the mini-grant program are to (1) increase awareness of the benefits of safe walking/biking to school, (2) increase the number of youth engaging in physical activity through walking/biking to school and (3) provide schools with resources on SRTS best practices and additional funding opportunities.
The mini-grants specifically target low-income areas. Studies show that these children face a higher risk of being injured or killed as pedestrians. The mini-grant program is intended to be a catalyst for these communities to begin to examine ways to make the environment safer and more accessible for children to walk and bike to school, as well as to connect these groups with larger funding opportunities.
The application is available online at www.preventionconnections.org
In order to apply, the targeted schools must be Title I elementary and/or middle schools in Virginia. A variety of groups are encouraged to apply including PTAs, local governments, community agencies and nonprofits, etc.
The deadline for applications is Thursday, December 30, 2010, 11:59 p.m. For any additional information, contact Ashley Johnson, SRTS Program Manager, at (804) 225-3004 or ajohnson@preventionconnections.org.
About Prevention Connections
Prevention Connections is committed to the prevention and reduction of tobacco use and childhood obesity through education, intervention, policy development and community outreach to improve the health of individuals and communities. Prevention Connections is the nonprofit sister organization of the Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth.
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