Anti-Tobacco Efforts Lose, Obesity Fight Wins in Government

Money for anti-tobacco activities is needed more than ever, especially in the gay community where LGBT people smoke at twice the rate of straight people. The money needs to go to anti-tobacco advertising, prevention and cessation efforts and research. Millions of dollars, however, are being diverted to fund the fight against obesity. With Michelle Obama championing the cause, obesity is being increasingly identified as a national problem. The rate of obesity has doubled since 1985 and fully one out of three Americans is obese. Tobacco still demands adequate funding - four times as many people die from tobacco related illnesses than people die from obesity related illnesses. One out of five people are smokers in the country. Read about the issue in yesterday's New York Times article - Tobacco Funds Shrink as Obesity Fight Intensifies (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/28/health/policy/28obesity.html)

The preference for obesity fighting over anti-tobacco efforts exists in charities and federal and state governments. The White House got more funding to fight obesity than tobacco in the economic stimulus and health care reform legislation. States have diverted $150 million from anti-tobacco programs in the last two years and regularly divert tobacco settlement money to general expenses. Added cigarette tax revenue also gets sucked back into the general funds pool. Meanwhile, funding for tobacco PSAs is languishing. The "Truth" ads are falling by the wayside for lack of funding, falling to $35 million last year from $104 million in 2000.

This whittling of support can only invigorate the tobacco companies. “The industry outspends us in a day what we spend in a year,” said David Dobbins, chief operating officer of "Truth" producers the American Legacy Foundation.

The state of tobacco funding should be a wake-up call. Tobacco activists have a heavily funded, well-defined adversary in the tobacco industry that looks for any chinks in our armor to reach out and weaken us. Instead of pitting obesity against smoking, the government should be promoting each fight according to need. The nation needs the commitment.

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Keep track of the work Butt Out is doing by going to our website (www.butt-out.org/), friending us on Facebook (butt-outsanfrancisco) or by connecting with us on Twitter (twitter.com/buttoutsf).Butt Out is a project of Breathe California, funded by the San Francisco Tobacco Free Project, which works to get tobacco money out of LGBT community organizations in San Francisco. We also educate the public about the hazards of smoking and about smoking cessation.

Point-of-Sale Tobacco Ads Suck in Youth

It is no secret that Big Tobacco has young people in their sights. People who become smokers before age 18 are more likely to become lifetime smokers. The tobacco companies can be very successful in their efforts to attract young smokers. 43.7% of LGBT youth smoke, for instance - no doubt lured by the gay friendly advertising the tobacco companies put out in the gay media.

The tobacco companies have used all sorts of devices to cultivate young smokers. They used to have Joe Camel and Marlboro Miles. Now they have nicotine candy like Camel Snus. The FDA has issued regulations outlawing a lot of advertising and promotion efforts. The most basic form of promotion remains untouched: advertising at point-of-sale locations. A new study shows that such advertising has a special impact on young people.

Stanford University Medical School researchers say point-of-sale ads in places such as convenience stores, gas stations and small groceries are a major cause of teen smoking. Teens who frequently visited places with tobacco advertising were twice as likely to start smoking as teens who visited the locations less frequently. Frequency of advertising exposure was measured by multiplying the number of visits to stores by the number of tobacco labelled advertising and tchochkes at the stores. The study is to be published in the August issue of Pediatrics.

Banning point-of-sale advertising would be a direct hit against Big Tobacco and represent a substantial victory for anti-tobacco youth advocates. Tobacco companies spend big bucks on point-of-sale advertising. It accounts for 90% of their $12.5 billion marketing budget in 2006. The cigarette labelled items in stores is overwhelming and consist of things like clocks, trash cans and cash register mats. Tobacco companies know that point-of-sale advertising attracts people to smoke and normalizes the practice by juxtaposing its advertising with advertising for household items like dishwashing liquid and soup. Banning such advertising will lead to a substantial reduction in smoking rates for teens, which has already been declining in recent years.

I can only hope that the FDA takes the bull by the horns and bans tobacco advertising in stores. Undoubtedly the tobacco companies will declare that their free speech rights are violated. That is nothing compared to having our young peoples' lives violated.

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Keep track of the work Butt Out is doing by going to our website (www.butt-out.org/), friending us on Facebook (butt-outsanfrancisco) or by connecting with us on Twitter (twitter.com/buttoutsf).Butt Out is a project of Breathe California, funded by the San Francisco Tobacco Free Project, which works to get tobacco money out of LGBT community organizations in San Francisco. We also educate the public about the hazards of smoking and about smoking cessation.

LGBT Smoking Report Cause for Concern

Smoking is the leading cause of preventable illness and death in the country, accounting for 393,000 deaths a year. A new report on LGBT smoking has been released that shows that LGBT people suffer more from this deadly addiction. Researchers combed through more than 40 separate analyses to determine that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people are more likely to use tobacco than straight people. A dozen or so states have collected sexual orientation information on routine health surveys. However, only 6 states have published reports on tobacco use by sexual orientation: Arizona, California, Massachusetts, New Mexico, and Oregon and Washington together. All 6 of these states found significantly elevated smoking rates in the LGBT community.

The statistics are alarming. Gay men are nearly two and a half times more likely to develop a smoking habit than straight men. Lesbians are twice as likely compared to straight women, and people who are bisexual appear to have the highest risk of all - all of the state surveys that collected data on bisexuals found smoking rates higher than 30 percent, and ranging up to a high of 39.1 percent. At 30.7 percent, the transgender smoking prevalence was very close to the overall LGBT rate of 30.4 percent.

LGBT youth are a vulnerable population. Bisexual youth seem to be at highest risk compared with both heterosexual and homosexual youth. Researchers found that bisexual boys were twice as likely to smoke regularly as either gay or straight boys. Compared to heterosexuals, “mostly heterosexual” girls were 2.5 times more likely, and lesbian/bisexual girls were an alarming 9.7 times more likely to smoke at least weekly. Boys identified as “mostly heterosexual” were 2.5 times more likely than heterosexual boys to smoke at least weekly, but gay/bisexual boys were no more likely to smoke than heterosexual boys.

The report analyzed reasons for the smoking rate disparity. One reason is the stress of discrimination. Actual or even perceived stigma causes stress, and research has shown that smoking rates, as well as other negative health behaviors and outcomes, are higher in groups that experience high levels of stress. The bar culture might also be to blame. Because there is a biological and behavioral link between drinking and smoking, it is likely that the bar culture would have contributed to elevated smoking rates. Access to healthcare is another issue. LGBT people have less access to health care and the smoking cessation tools often necessary to kick the habit. Another reason is tobacco company targetting of the LGBT community. The tobacco industry was one of the first to develop marketing materials specifically targeting the LGBT community, and it has over time cynically reaped the benefits of the attention paid to a group that had been largely ignored by mainstream advertisers. Finally, some of our community leaders have ignored the problem. Despite the impact of tobacco use on the health and well-being of the LGBT community, many LGBT organizations do not seem to view tobacco control as a relevant issue and some noted in studies that combating smoking could be bad for an organization’s bank account. There are so many reasons for LGBT smoking disparities. The issue is very complex.

The study is a good look at current knowledge of LGBT smoking. We should all be very concerned with the elevated rates of smoking and take the figures as a call to action. We need to tackle the driving forces of smoking in the community. One day perhaps we can look at smoking in the LGBT community as an unfortunate but limited chapter in our group history.

Stay in Touch!

Keep track of the work Butt Out is doing by going to our website (www.butt-out.org/), friending us on Facebook (butt-outsanfrancisco) or by connecting with us on Twitter (twitter.com/buttoutsf).Butt Out is a project of Breathe California, funded by the San Francisco Tobacco Free Project, which works to get tobacco money out of LGBT community organizations in San Francisco. We also educate the public about the hazards of smoking and about smoking cessation.

The Big Apple Takes A Bite Out of Tobacco. Will California Follow?

Yay to New York state! They have enacted a new tax on cigarrettes in the state. Packs of cigarettes now go for as high as $10-11 dollars and a carton in the hundred plus area. The state hopes to generate $440 million in revenue. New York now has the most expensive cigarettes in the country.

The biggest gain from the tax will be in the number of people quitting smoking. Based on the impact of previous cigarette tax increases, professionals have estimated that this will result in 120,000 fewer smokers and 23,000 fewer high school smokers. Granted some people will go out of state or turn to the black market for cheaper cigarettes but the truth remains clear that more people will give up the noxious habit as a result of the tax.

What would happen if California followed New York's lead? The impact on LGBT people can be great. In our state, LGBT people smoke twice the rate of other people. The impact on our youth can be even greater. 43.7% of LGBT youth in California smoke. Cigarette taxes really impact youth behavior because young people are more price sensitive to products - they have less money to spend on things. LGBT youth needs California to step up!

Maybe it will happen. Backers of a state initiative that would increase cigarette taxes by $1 a pack to provide more than $500 million a year to prevent, detect and treat cancer said that they have gathered enough signatures to put it on the ballot in 2012. The measure is sponsored by the American Cancer Society, the American Cancer Action Network, the American Lung Association, the American Heart Association and the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. The money would go into a trust fund, and 60 percent would go toward research. Twenty percent would fund smoking cessation efforts and campaigns to prevent tobacco use, 15 percent would pay for facilities and equipment to support research and 3 percent would help police enforce anti-tobacco laws and stop tobacco smuggling. No more than 2 percent would be spent on administrative costs.

Let's see if California can follow the Big Apple's lead. A lot of queer kids will be grateful despite themselves.

Stay in Touch!

Keep track of the work Butt Out is doing by going to our website (www.butt-out.org/), friending us on Facebook (butt-outsanfrancisco) or by connecting with us on Twitter (twitter.com/buttoutsf).Butt Out is a project of Breathe California, funded by the San Francisco Tobacco Free Project, which works to get tobacco money out of LGBT community organizations in San Francisco. We also educate the public about the hazards of smoking and about smoking cessation.