Breaking States Free from Flavored Tobacco & Why it Matters

If you use healthcare or live on Planet Earth, you want a comprehensive ban on flavored tobacco products. This podcast is a helpful summary of all the issues wrapped up in flavored tobacco, e-cigarettes and the human, environmental and economic damages of the tobacco industry. Statewide and comprehensive flavored tobacco bans that include menthol, cigars, e-cigarettes and more are simple and potent steps we can all take in our states to protect our kids and environment. Rather than having to listen to 5 different podcasts to get up to speed, this one will catch you up on all the major issues in a tight 20 minutes, so you can be on your way to understanding why this issue matters to you and why it should matter to everyone!

I cover tobacco and vaping a great deal on this podcast because tobacco remains the leading cause of preventable death, disease and disability in the United States. Anything we can do to decrease its harms improves the health, lives and economy for all of us! 

I also go through many of the common objections and “whaddabouts” that come up with this concern. Please share this episode!

To Do:

- If you live in Oregon, contact your State Senator and Representative to ask them to pass a comprehensive flavored tobacco ban.

- Post on social media and consider writing an Op-Ed about why you support a ban on flavored nicotine products. 

- Find out if there is a flavor ban being considered in your county or state, and do what you can to support it. 

- Learn more about how you or a loved one can break free of the nicotine habit here.

- If you are between 50 and 80 years old and currently smoke or have quit within the last 15 years, go to SavedByTheScan.org to find out about whether you should consider lung cancer screening.

- Share this episode and post with friends and family and anyone whom you think might be interested. 

To Learn More- 

Prior podcast episodes for deep dives on each topic include:

A Heartbreaking Trap- episode with a youth pastor who worked for Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids about hx of menthol and other flavored tobacco products, particularly targeted at the Black community. 

The Route Makes the Poison- Inhaling Flavors with Prof Ilona Jaspers- about difference between eating and inhaling flavoring chemicals.

Not Kool- Menthol and Lung Numbing with Prof Svent Jordt- about particular dangers of menthol and numbing products to the lungs, 

Do the Vape Talk- episode for parents and teachers about talking to kids in their lives about e-cigs and vaping with expertise from American Lung Association

Learn more about health effects of e-cigarettes in the podcast episode “Gambling with Your Lungs”  

A County vs Big Tobacco- Fighting Flavors and Protecting Kids- episode about one of these county level battles from a few years ago that passed and with the current State Senator sponsoring the bill.  

If your state or county doesn’t have tobacco retail licensing, that is a vital step in knowing what is going on! Listen to the A Teen Talks Vaping episode to learn more. 

Teens Tackle Tobacco- Butts, E-cigs, Schools and more- with 2 members of Sierra Club youth tobacco project 

Climate Change, Microplastics and Fires- the EcoToll of Tobacco with the Sierra Club-  more on environmental toll of tobacco

Image of my kids with flavored tobacco products at their eye level at a gas station