On January 11, 1964, the U.S. Surgeon General issued his first report on the dangers of smoking.\u00a0 Based on more than 7,000 articles relating to smoking and disease then available in the medical literature, the Surgeon General\u2019s report concluded that cigarette smoking is a cause of lung cancer.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The result was relatively\nmild; in 1966 the federal government required a health warning on cigarette\npackages and in 1970 it banned cigarette advertising in the broadcasting media. The industry figured out how to circumvent\nthese obstacles. They started using\ncartoon characters, they offered candy-flavored tobacco products, they placed\ntheir products in popular movies, and advertised in magazines aimed at women, African\nAmericans, and sports fans. All with the\ngoal of making cigarette smoking glamorous and to appeal to kids. They knew that virtually all smokers started\nin their early teens; getting kids hooked was key to replacing the customers\nthat were dying from tobacco diseases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the evidence began to\npile up that exposure to tobacco smoke by non-smokers caused disease, public\nhealth advocates pushed for action to curb environmental tobacco smoke\nexposure. In the late 1980s, New York\nState \u2013 considered a progressive state \u2013 enacted the first limited steps to ban\nsmoking in certain work and public places. \nTwo decades later \u2013 and nearly 40 years after the first Surgeon General\nreport \u2013 a more expansive workplace and public space tobacco use ban was\nenacted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why did it take so long\nfor public policy to catch up to the science? \nThe political power of the tobacco lobby. In New York for years the tobacco lobby hired\nlobbyists with close connections to governors and state lawmakers, funneled\nmassive donations to friendly charities, showered public officials with gifts\nsuch as freebies to the U.S. Open, hard-to-get theater tickets, lots of free\nmeals, and made big campaign contributions. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The science was never the\nproblem, the corruption of New York\u2019s political system was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It wasn\u2019t until the\npolitics changed that New York acted. In\na series of media investigations \u2013 led by the NY Times, it became clear that\nthe tobacco industry had illegally \u2013 and legally \u2013 influenced Albany\u2019s decision\nmaking. Nearly all elected officials in\nNew York were implicated. It became an\nimportant act of political survival for elected officials to distance\nthemselves from Big Tobacco. Soon after\nthe scandal was revealed they passed laws like banning smoking in public places\nand all workplaces \u2013 including bars. \nThey raised the cigarette tax to the highest in the nation. They approved the first-in-the-nation\nrequirement that cigarettes had to meet rigorous fire safety standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The state Democratic Party\neven swore to not<\/em> accept campaign contributions from the tobacco\nindustry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And for a while it\nworked. The tobacco industry\u2019s power was\ndramatically weakened, and lives were saved. \nAccording to the New York State Health Department, tens of thousands of\nNew Yorkers were spared from tobacco-related diseases due to the pro-health\nactions taken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But now, Big Tobacco is\nback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While tobacco use\ndwindled, the industry identified a new way to sell their addictive products \u2013\nelectronic cigarettes. The industry\nspent money to invest in the new nicotine delivery devices and we are now\nseeing the pay-offs \u2013 about one third of all high school students have\nillegally used an e-cig. Use is growing\ndramatically, and so is the body count.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Governor Cuomo called for\naction to curtail the sale of flavored e-cigs. \nOne of the devilish ways the industry replaces the smokers who quit or\ndie is to target young people. In New\nYork, the average<\/em> age for beginning smokers is 13, despite laws banning\nsales to minors. The e-cig industry took\na page from Big Tobacco\u2019s past and started selling vapes with candy\nflavors. And it worked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Governor Cuomo has\nadvanced legislation that bans the sale of flavored e-cigs, but leaves in place\nthe sale of flavored conventional tobacco products. And opposition to even this approach is\nfierce in the Legislature. The state\nCapitol has been flooded with tobacco and e-cig lobbyists all with the goal of\nprotecting the Merchants of Death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How these individuals\nsleep at night is beyond me. These\nproducts serve no public purpose, they are designed to addict, harm health,\ncause early, painful deaths for many users and target children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How our elected officials\nlisten to the pleas of these death merchants and their paid mouthpieces is\nsomething that voters should know about. \nBecause voter anger at putting the wealth of Big Tobacco ahead of the\nhealth of children is not only despicable, but politically dangerous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is an election\nyear. Let\u2019s see if New York \u2013 the\nsupposed progressive capital of the nation \u2013 protects kids and bans flavored\nvapes and<\/em> tobacco. It\u2019s time to\nput Count Dracula back in his grave.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On January 11, 1964, the U.S. Surgeon General issued his first report on the dangers of smoking.\u00a0 Based on more than 7,000 articles relating to smoking and disease then available in the medical literature, the Surgeon General\u2019s report concluded that cigarette smoking is a cause of lung cancer.\u00a0 The result was relatively mild; in 1966 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2356"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2357,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2356\/revisions\/2357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}