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Candy flavored cigars for North Country kids are not cool

Posted 11/22/13

To the Editor: It is well established that schools with higher rates of student smoking tend to be surrounded by a larger number of tobacco retailers in the neighborhoods where the schools are …

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Candy flavored cigars for North Country kids are not cool

Posted

To the Editor:

It is well established that schools with higher rates of student smoking tend to be surrounded by a larger number of tobacco retailers in the neighborhoods where the schools are located. (Scott T. Leatherdale & Jocelyn M. Strath, Tobacco Retailer Density Surrounding Schools and Cigarette Access Behaviors Among Underage Smoking Students, 33 Annals of Behavior Medicine, 105, 109 (2007))

As our kids get back to the classroom, parents are interested in what’s happening near schools, not just inside school buildings. More than 50 percent of tobacco retailers are located within 1,000 feet of an elementary or secondary school in New York State which means most kids can’t avoid passing tobacco marketing to and from school every day.( Douglas A. Luke et al., Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act: Banning Outdoor Tobacco Advertising Near Schools and Playgrounds, 40 Am.J. Prev. Med. 295, 300 (2011))

In our North Country communities this proximity issue seems to be less common, but still worth noting since the U.S. Surgeon General reports that tobacco advertising is more prevalent inside tobacco retailers located near schools. (Preventing Tobacco Use Among Youth and Young Adults, A Report of the Surgeon General, 2012)

Tobacco marketing is a cause of youth smoking and the new products that are showing up on local store shelves (sometimes on the counter at the eye level of a child) are clearly marketed toward the youthful eye.

Most adults don’t even notice these displays of little cigars that come in flavors like grape, chocolate, and cherry. Despite what our kids are learning about the dangers of tobacco use in school, all the tobacco marketing they see teaches them that smoking is normal, accessible, and cool.

Benjamin R. Todd

St. Lawrence County Tobacco Program Coordinator