Massachusetts Makes the Tobacco Fight Graphic

You know how a lung is supposed to look: Plump and pink all over, gleaming with health. Picture me now holding the lung slice at last year's Butt Out booth for SF Pride. Cropped within two clear panes of plexiglass was a sliver of diseased lung. The lung matter was grey with black marks here and there. The slice had craters in it and red pocks where blood vessels had blown up. Imagine me with the biggest grimacing look that you can imagine on a person. Someone actually had that lung! That lung slice belonged to a long-time smoker who died of a smoking related disease. Let me tell you, that lung slice validated the decision not to smoke for me and everyone passing by the booth that day. Nothing said DO NOT SMOKE better than a slice of human flesh that looked like it had been left out in the sun for days.

Massachusetts is getting graphic too. Pending approval of the Public Health Council, the state will require its 9,000 convenience stores, pharmacies, and gas stations to show posters of the physical harm caused by smoking by tobacco racks and cash registers. Consumers will have to look at pictures of degenerated lung mass and decayed teeth before making their tobacco purchases. The hope is that some of those consumers will rethink their choice. Massachusetts will be the first state to mandate anti-smoking posters at retailers and will follow New York City's lead, which has been successfully waging its own campaign (check out the pictures). Retailers will suffer $200-$300 fines if they don't put up the posters.

San Francisco should create a similar program. San Francisco already has some momentum for change with the second-hand smoking ordinance. The City should run with it. Money should not be a concern either. Massachusetts has accessed $316,000 in federal stimulus money from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to do the posters. Local workers get jobs making the posters. Maybe the City can get similar funds. Let's do it!

I always recoil when I think about the lung slice that I saw while tabling. I don't smoke and seeing the lung slice makes me not want to smoke even more. Let's hope Massachusetts succeeds in deterring people with its poster program. Why can't we do the same here?

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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.

Schwarzenegger Lacks Leadership on Smoking Ban

We can all feel good about the second-hand smoking ban in San Francisco. The ban will help everyone enjoy smokefree movie lines and restaurant patios, among other things. LGBT people benefit and LGBT smokers might even be motivated to give up the habit. We cannot become complacent in our victory, however. Statewide, our grand old governor, the Arnold, has vetoed a bill that would ban smoking in our state parks and beaches. Our collective wilds are still at the mercy of smokers. Shame, shame, governor!

Has this ever happened to you? It is a sunny day. You are at the beach. The breeze is coursing through your hair as you walk hand in hand with your loved one. You admire the ocean waves and contemplate your small but glorious place in the world. You imagine yourself as one grain of sand in the universe and look down to admire the tan waves of surf. Then you see it. A collection of cigarette butts with a beer bottle on the ground. These little nasties are ground into the sand, with their white filters poking out of the top. Your mood is immediately shot.

How can we enjoy our parks and oceans when people litter these areas with cigarrette butts? This garbage tarnishes the serenity of the scenes. They are pollution too and harm the fragile ecosystems that our fabulous state supports. Equally vexatious is the second-hand smoking that people are exposed to when they congregate together on camp grounds and other shared spots on the wilds. Smoking is a menace to our state parks and beaches.

Our cigar smoking governor failed us all. He also went against the recommendations of experts on the issue, the California Ocean Protection Council. Schwarzenegger said that the smoking ban was too intrusive and that state parks and beaches individually could ban smoking. He also said that smoking could be discouraged with added penalties and fines.

These arguments are unavailing. If he thinks that smoking bans are permissible on an individual basis, he has no good reason to promote smoking on a statewide basis. Additionally, penalties and fines can be used with a smoking ban to discourage the noxious practice. Not only does Schwarzenegger's arguments fall flat, they fail against the practice of countless governments. Hundreds of communities nationwide have enacted smoking bans at municipal parks and beaches. Maine is the only state to ban smoking at its state beaches.

I plan to visit Muir Woods with my sweetie this weekend. I want to enjoy the elements without seeing cigarrette butts dotting the grounds. This is less likely with Schwarzenegger's veto. Take one of your cigars and put it up in your wild areas, Arnold!

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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.

The Misinformation is Out There

Sorry, I’ve been missing in action for awhile. I’ll do a new blog post next week. This week I’m posting a letter to the editor that will hopefully be printed in the BAR soon. The letter, written by Butt Out’s Brian Davis, is a response to a recent “Guest Opinion” piece in the BAR which suggests that the new secondhand smoke law is unnecessary:

http://ebar.com/openforum/opforum.php?sec=guest_op&id=268.

This piece, written by a member of the LGBT community, is filled with misinformation and misguided conclusions based on incomplete information, that I feel ultimately serves to encourage smokers to continue smoking rather than inspiring them to quit. Here’s Brian’s letter. See you next week!

“I am writing in response to the guest opinion article: “New smoking ban is not needed.” The article suggests that secondhand smoke is not a serious health concern, when in fact 53,000 people a year in the U.S. die because of it, and the Surgeon General has determined that there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke.

It’s true that smoking rates in general have gone down, but the LGBT community in California is still smoking at very high rates: 30.4% overall -- twice as much as everyone else. It’s ironic that the article suggests we should spend more money educating “marginalized populations at most risk of smoking” without mentioning that the LGBT community is among the most at risk, and without realizing that the new law will help inspire the 70% of LGBT smokers who want to quit to break free from their addiction.

It is not true that there was a parade of children in front of the Supervisors talking about how smoking on bar patios affects their asthma. The youngest to testify were a few high school students, and they didn’t talk about smoking in bars.

Also, it is inaccurate to suggest that taking these practical measures to reduce exposure to secondhand smoke in bar environments will be harmful to business. Many other cities have similar laws and their bars have continued to thrive, often drawing additional customers who enjoy breathing air free of smoke drawn in from open doorways to the street or outdoor patios, and who enjoy being outdoors at a bar without having to inhale toxic fumes.

And yes, the air in outdoor smoking patios is toxic. A recent Stanford study demonstrated that exposure to tobacco smoke outside can be just as hazardous as indoor levels, increasing non-smoker’s risk of heart disease, asthma, and many other diseases caused by smoking.

Finally, the name of the group that advocated for the new law is the San Francisco Tobacco Free Coalition, not the “Anti-Smoking Coalition” as the article claims. We are working for the health of this city by helping protect people of all ages from exposure to secondhand smoke and helping the vast majority of smokers who want to quit get the help they need to break free from tobacco.

Brian Davis
Project Coordinator

BUTT OUT! Ending Tobacco Industry Exploitation of the LGBT Community
On behalf of the San Francisco Tobacco Free Coalition”

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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.

FDA Champions Youth In New Rule

Both of my parents smoke. Their brand of choice is Marlboro. Back in the day in the 1980s my parents took advantage of the "Marlboro Mile" program to accumulate free knick-knacks with the Marlboro logo on it. My parents spent so much money on cigarettes and we were poor. Why not fill the house with free Marlboro mugs and other accoutrements? We had every conceivable item, including Marlboro logoed camping tents that we pitched in the living room. Every day I had an added reminder that cigarettes existed. I was given the message that smoking and heavy smoking won you cool stuff.

I didn't pick up smoking, but my other siblings did. Only one of my siblings has broken free of the habit.

My family's experience is not an isolated one. Big Tobacco has its hooks in our youth, particularly our LGBT youth. Every day nearly 4,000 kids under 18 try their first cigarette and 1,000 kids under 18 become daily smokers. National youth smoking rates range from 28% to 35% for adolescents. The numbers are even bleaker for LGBT youth in California. Fully 43.7% of them smoke! LGBT youth smoke for so many reasons, principally out of a sense of alienation at being gay in an antigay world. The tobacco companies have pounced on LGBT youth insecurity and vulnerability in their marketing efforts at youth generally. It is a moral horror.

Enter the feds in white hats. Recently the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a final rule banning numerous Big Tobacco practices impacting our youth. The rule is a creative and comprehensive effort to protect our youth that will save many LGBT youth as well from picking up the deadly tobacco habit.

Most of the rule reinstates a 1996 rule that was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2000. The Supreme Court stated that the FDA overstepped its powers because they did not have the authority to regulate tobacco. Congress licked that problem in 2009 with passage of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.

The FDA bans a good number of practices. They ban tobacco sales to minors, sales of cigarettes in less than 20-pack size, sample giveaways, and tobacco sponsorship of sports, music and other events. Those provisions were in the old 1996 rule and were in part adopted by the tobacco companies in the Master Settlement Agreement. The rule bans other things including sales of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco in vending machines and self-service displays, music and sound effects in audio tobacco ads, and sale or distribution of items like hats and t-shirts with tobacco brands or logos. A controversial part of the rule is the mandate that most tobacco advertising and labeling be displayed only in black text on a white background. The tobacco companies have rushed to sue over this provision. Stay tuned.

Let's hope the FDA's action will be but one step in the fight against Big Tobacco's targeting of our youth. Then we can send that Marlboro camping tent and the bag of "goodies" inside of it to the wilderness.

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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.

Iowa Hate Group Claims Same-Sex Marriage is Worse than Smoking

You read that right. An anti-gay organization in Iowa called the Iowa Family Policy Center is saying that same-sex marriage is worse than smoking. This claim not only comes from left field but is appalling in the face of statistics on smoking showing the deadly toll of smoking on the population. As mentioned before in this blog, smoking kills more people than murder, suicide, traffic accidents, drugs and alcohol combined!

The lack of sensitivity and understanding is incredible. Just listen to what the president of the group, Chuck Hurley, has to say:

“The Iowa Legislature outlawed smoking in an effort to improve health and reduce the medical costs that are often passed on to the state. The secondhand impacts of certain homosexual acts are arguably more destructive, and potentially more costly to society than smoking.”

The "secondhand impacts" that Hurley refers to deals with a U.S. Centers for Disease Control report that showed gay men have higher rates of HIV and syphilis. Hurley claims that giving same-sex couples the right to marry will increase the rates of HIV and syphilis in Iowa.

Penalizing gay people and withholding their rights stigmatizes people. Many new transmissions of HIV and syphilis happen to people who do not know their status. People in loving married couples can draw on family and community support to empower themselves and seek the knowledge and services necessary to remain HIV negative or to seek treatment if they become HIV positive. Witholding civil rights like marriage exacerbates the rate of infection.

The comment about smoking calls for special attention. Smoking kills people on a massive scale. I learned recently that one third of the world's population smokes. Smoking causes disease in about half of smokers. Tobacco is the only product marketed that kills its users when used as directed. One cannot ignore the terrible swath of destruction that smoking has blazed in our lives.

Compare that to same-sex marriage or to marriage in general. Marriage solidifies the love and commitment of two people. Their lives are intertwined and strengthened by the union. Our society strongly sanctions marriage. Everyone from our immediate families to the IRS gives support to married couples. Marriage is a stabilizing force in people's lives that positively impacts gay lives as well as straight lives. The comparison to smoking completely falls flat in the face of the benefits of same-sex marriage in the lives of LGBT people and in the community at large. Just listen to Butt Out coordinator Brian Davis describing his marriage with his husband Ted and the comparison to smoking:

"My 22 years with Ted has invigorated my life. Smoking destroys life. Getting married brought me and Ted closer together. Tobacco tears families apart forever through death and disability. There is no comparing same-sex marriage and smoking."

Let's tell the haters in Iowa to get their facts and their values straight. Same-sex marriage is a bond that shines. Smoking casts a heavy pall on all of us.

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.

Smoking Triggers Recurrence of Cancer in HIV+ People

Smoking negatively impacts the health of people with HIV. People with HIV have weakened immune systems that are bolstered but not completely bolstered by life extending anti-viral medication. Smoking makes it harder to fight off HIV related illnesses, especially those dealing with the lungs. The damaging effects of smoking on HIV+ people is illustrated by the results of a recent study looking at the effects of smoking on the recurrence of head and neck cancer.

Some HIV+ people contract the human-papillomavirus (HPV). HPV can cause head and neck cancer. It is possible for HIV+ people to fight off the illness and put the cancer into remission. That time free from cancer can be cut short because of smoking.

University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor scientists looked at 124 patients who were treated at the University of Michigan for squamous cell carcinoma of the oropharynx. They compared rates of recurrence in HIV+ people who smoked compared to those who did not smoke. Overall, 82.3% had HPV-positive tumors. Among these patients, only 32.3% had never used tobacco. Current smokers were more than five times more likely to have a recurrence!

The cancer can be caused by HPV negative and positive viruses. Among those with HPV-positive tumors, the rate of recurrence was highest among current tobacco users (34.8%), followed by former users (19.6%) and those who had never used tobacco (6%). The recurrence rate among patients with HPV-negative tumors, who had all used tobacco at some point, was the highest at 50%.

The investigators noted potential limitations in the statistical analysis for the study, which included two different cohorts that differed in gender distribution, HPV-positivity, treatment regimens, and follow-up times.

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.

Brian Davis Goes 'Out in the Bay'

Last Thursday Butt Out's Brian Davis had an exciting interview on "Out in the Bay," an LGBT themed show on KALW 91.7 FM. You can listen to the show on www.kalw.org. He talked about the problem of LGBT smoking, how the tobacco companies target the LGBT community, the special impact of smoking on LGBT youth and the work that Butt Out is doing to fight the tobacco companies in the community.

Brian entered the interview with a lot of passion. Brian is personally motivated to do anti-tobacco advocacy. He has asthma and chafed as a child at having to inhale the smoke from his father's cigarettes. He was also pained to see his father try over and over again to quit his two pack a day habit. Brian had a lot to offer on the interview that came from a personal place.

Brian highlighted a number of powerful considerations in the fight against big tobacco.

Smoking is a Highly Prevalent Killer in the LGBT Community

LGBT people smoke more than straight people - two times more. Gay men smoke 50% more than straight men in California. Lesbians smoke three times more than straight women. LGBT people also start smoking younger than straight people, at ages 14 or 15. Some research indicates that it is significantly harder to quit smoking if a person starts smoking before age 18. The smoking rates are hard to hear considering that tobacco kills more people than murder, suicide, traffic accidents, drugs and alcohol combined! LGBT people are disproportionately counted in the 400,000 tobacco deaths every year in the United States.

Smoking Hits LGBT Youth Hard

Brian discussed the troubling problem of LGBT youth smoking. Fully 43.7% of LGBT youth smoke in California - nearly half of the LGBT youth population! A 2006 University of Minnesota study highlighted some of the reasons why. Many youth suffered trauma, abuse and ostracism from their homes and communities for being gay. Smoking is a way to escape the pain and make friends. "Do you have a light" is a conversation starter for the young LGBT person searching for community. Brian emphasized that the the community needs to take steps to change its face with respect to smoking so that LGBT youth have different models to emulate in their behavior. Brian pointed to Butt Out's Grim Reaper event as an example of the community coming together against tobacco. The Grim Reaper event was a bit of street theater in the Castro where the tobacco "Grim Reaper" was chased out of the neighborhood. The LGBT community needs to do more to steer LGBT youth down the right path.

The Tobacco Companies Target the LGBT Community

While still reticent to embrace a highly stigmatized community, tobacco companies have targeted the LGBT community in an effort to turn our community's fierce brand loyalty into equally fierce addiction. The tobacco companies have used advertising as a weapon in their arsenal. Genre magazine in 1992 published the first pro-gay tobacco ad. Since then the tobacco companies have put out ads purporting to support gay rights even as they push cigarettes on gay people. One recent ad in fact equated the freedom to marry with the freedom to inhale tobacco smoke. Brian expressed his shock at the demeaning of our struggle for equality as well as at the hypocrisy of an industry that supports conservative politicians as well as LGBT organizations.

Butt Out Works with LGBT Organizations to Combat Big Tobacco

Brian pointed out that tobacco companies try to garner support in the community by giving money to LGBT organizations. They try to leverage the good will of the organizations to make themselves look good. The support is inch deep - they spend more money advertising the fact that they support LGBT organizations than actually funding LGBT organizations.

Butt Out is inoculating the LGBT community against tobacco company machinations by getting organizations to spurn tobacco funding and adopt tobacco-free funding policies. The work is hard to do in these difficult funding times. Brian pointed out that companies can see the justice of Butt Out's position by considering whether they would take money from a company whose product gave AIDS to half its consumers. An organization should consider taking tobacco money as unconscionable as taking money from the hypothetical company.

Butt Out can point to some successes in its work. 20 Bay Area based LGBT organizations have tobacco-free policies, including the National Center for Lesbian Rights and San Francisco Pride. All LGBT politicians in the Bay Area such as Mark Leno have pledged not to accept campaign donations from tobacco companies. Butt Out continues to raise consciousness in community organizations and add to the community of groups rejecting tobacco funding.

Stay in Touch!

Stay tuned to this blog for more news of Butt Out community activism, interviews and events.

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.