PAVe: Big Tobacco Messed with the Wrong Moms

This week’s episode highlights Sara, a New York State pediatrician who has been fighting the tobacco industry’s targeting of teens on multiple fronts: as a doctor seeking to protect her patients; as a PAVe volunteer warning other parents; and, most importantly, as a mom desperate to help her college-age son quit vaping. 

Decades ago, tobacco Industry research  revealed that menthol amplifies nicotine addiction, especially in African Americans; the more melanin in a smoker’s skin,  the greater menthol’s impact. Armed with this knowledge, Big Tobacco methodically marketed menthol combustible cigarettes to African Americans; the more melanin in a smoker’s skin, the greater menthol’s impact.

(In 2009, when the federal government banned flavored cigarettes, menthol was the blatant exemption.)

Last April, after years of inexplicable delay, a federal lawsuit brought by plaintiffs including the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council forced FDA to finally announce it would “begin the rule-making process” to end the sale of menthol cigarettes-but that could take years.

That’s why the Center for Black Health and Equity is fighting deadly menthol tobacco products in real time at community levels across the country. In this week’s episode we interview the Center’s Greg Bolden about the No Menthol Movement in Atlanta; local partner D’Jillisser Kelly of the H.E.A.R.T coalition will discuss on-the-ground efforts including the Great American Smokeout on November 18th.

This is the last chance for parents to make our voices heard before FDA rules on JUUL!

Between now and September 9th the agency must decide whether or not to approve Juul and any flavored e-cigarette. Over the last several weeks, over two thousand parents have signed our letter urging FDA to deny all applications for these dangerous products. 

In this week's podcast episode, part of our “Back to school, not back to Juul” campaign, we interview Dr. Rachel Boykan, Clinical Professor, of Pediatrics at the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University who explains why she believes FDA must act NOW against flavored e-cigarettes that have already caused enormous harm to millions of kids. 

On today’s episode, Bloomberg News investigative reporter Lauren Etter discusses “The Devil’s Playbook: Big Tobacco, Juul, and the Addiction of a New Generation”. With FDA poised to rule on JUUL’s applications for its menthol and tobacco flavored products, Etter’s new book provides a deep dive into how the collision of Silicon Valley values and the industry’s predatory behavior created an adolescent public-health crisis that could impact our kids for years to come. 

Says Etter, a mom of three young children, “If a (JUUL) representative had come into my kids’ school, I’d be pissed.”

FDA could formally approve a menthol JUUL at any moment. The time to make our voices heard is NOW.

Our message to FDA must be loud and clear: Don’t let JUUL get away with it.

Menthol is not only preferred by nearly 40% of youth who vape, but it also makes it easier to get addicted and harder to quit. If we're going to protect kids from flavored e-cigarettes, menthol is no exception.

Add your name to send letter: www.parentsagainstvaping.org/fda-menthol

In 2016, Paula’s son Walter had just started high school in Delaware when a friend offered him a cool-looking flavored e-cigarette that had just come on the market: a JUUL. 

Walter, a twin, and one of Paula’s four children, was almost immediately addicted, often vaping multiple mango or menthol JUUL pods every day.  Walter’s asthma, largely under control since childhood, returned with a vengeance:  the more Walter vaped, the more severe his asthma attacks. 

 The final attack led to Walter’s death in September 2020, just a few days before his 20th birthday.

Tune in to this week’s episode to hear why Paula believes that publicly sharing her family’s tragedy will protect others--and is the most powerful way to fight back against an industry preying on teens.

On this week’s episode, we hear the story of a Connecticut mom struggling to save her son from his nicotine addiction as a result of flavored e-cigarette products. 

Kathy from Connecticut’s story shows us that we are not alone and when we stand up and fight back against Big Tobacco, just how powerful we can all be.

On this week’s episode, Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware, author of the Quit Because of COVID-19 Act to expand Medicaid coverage for tobacco-cessation during the pandemic, explains that her passion on this issue is personal. 

A Former CEO of the Urban League and mother of two, Blunt Rochester blames the industry’s glamorizing of smoking--the Virginia Slims ads and Newport KOOL concerts she recalls from when she was young--for leading family members to a lifetime of nicotine addiction. Now she sees similar tactics being deployed to hook a new generation through flavored nicotine products. 

On this week’s episode, Rae O’Leary, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, describes how JUUL representatives offered hundreds of thousands of dollars and free products to hook her tribe on what they falsely described as “smoking cessation” products. 

In 2019, O’Leary, who leads public-health initiatives for Missouri Breaks in Eagle Butte, South Dakota on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation, testified about this meeting at the Congressional hearing investigating JUUL’s marketing to teens. (In fact, that’s where we “wrong moms” met.) Hear, this tobacco-control educator and advocate--whose leadership led her tribal council to pass one of the strongest smoke-free air policies in Indian country--share her community’s historic struggle to fight Big Tobacco’s predatory behavior, especially towards Native American teens.

On this week’s episode, Truth Initiative CEO and President Robin Koval explains why our kids tune us out but listen to a total stranger--as long as it’s a fellow teen. Truth has mastered the essential art of peer-to-peer messaging, and that’s why the new #quitwithus social-media campaign is going viral. 

Learn how you can access important resources like “This is Quitting”, a texting tool written in an authentic teen voice, and a “cool” school curriculum that can inspire your kid to kick the e-cig habit.

In this week’s episode, American Lung Association National President and CEO Harold Wimmer and Chief Marketing Officer Julia Fitzgerald introduce the organization’s parent-focused initiative encouraging adults to discuss the dangers of vaping with younger children. We love the “Get Your Head Out of the Clouds” campaign (talkaboutvaping.org) --created in partnership with the Ad Council--gently spoofing parents’ misinformation about e-cigarettes and the all-too-familiar reluctance to believe that their own kids might be vaping.