They Encourage Others To Do The Same With Great American Smokeout Activity
Students from Fillmore’s Reality Check program marked 2023’s Great American Smokeout (GASO) by painting windows of the local Shop and Save to with the message: “Flavors are the lure! Nicotine is the hook.”
“Flavored tobacco products are enticing a new generation of New Yorks State’s youth into nicotine addiction, leading many of them to tobacco-related disease and early death,” said Jonathan Chaffee, Youth Outreach Coordinator at Tobacco-Free Chautauqua, Cattaraugus and Allegany Counties (TF-CCA). “Nicotine is not safe for the developing brain, and we must do everything we can to protect kids from a lifetime of tobacco use and nicotine dependence.”
A study released recently from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that 2.55 million U.S. middle and high school students reported current (past 30-day) e-cigarette use in 2022, which includes 14.1% of high school students and 3.3% of middle school students. Nearly 85% of those youth used flavored e-cigarettes and more than half used disposable e-cigarettes.
The high school senior vaping rate in Allegany County is 24.6 percent, which is almost 6 percent higher than the New York State average of 18.7 percent.
Evidence shows that flavors – such as mango, strawberry lemonade, unicorn sherbet and others have directly contributed to the rise and popularity of vaping among teens. The American Journal of Health Behavior reports that 93% of youth who started vaping started with a flavored product. At last count, according to The Journal of Medical Internet Research, there are more than 15,500 vape flavors available online. Other studies show that flavors lead kids to underestimate the risk of tobacco products.
GASO was established in 1976 to get smokers to quit for one day and make a plan to quit for good.
For young people who would like help to quit vaping they can text dropthevape to 88709. Adults in New York can also call the Allegany Council on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse, Inc. (ACASA) for local help quitting at 585-593-1920 ask for Ann. All New York residents can also call the New York Quitline at 1-866-697-8487 or visit www.nysmokefree.com
Reality Check, a teen-led, adult-run program, educates the community on youth smoking and vaping, the deceptive marketing tactics of the tobacco industry, and how policies can change social norms around tobacco sales and use.
For more information on Reality Check, visit www.realitycheckofny.com. To follow what Reality Check is doing in Allegany County you can follow on Facebook, Instagram, and X.
About Tobacco-Free Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Allegany
Tobacco-Free Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Allegany (TF-CCA) is funded through the New York State Department of Health, Bureau of Tobacco Control and is a part of Tobacco-Free Western New York, managed by Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. Learn more about Tobacco-Free Western New York at www.tobaccofreewny.com.