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Prevention Action Alliance
David: Meet
Goliath
By Marcie Seidel
I want to start by saying, "Thank You."
Thanks to thousands of people like you across the country, real steps
are finally being taken to curb teenagers' use of e-cigarettes, which
are used regularly by 16% of high school seniors.
Back in April, we at Prevention Action Alliance warned parents about
the dangers of these attractive, dangerous cigarettes.
Shortly after, the Food and Drug Administration announced that it would
crack down on e-cigarettes.
Earlier this week, users and a parent sued JUUL Labs, the maker of a
popular e-cigarette, alleging that JUUL used misleading advertising and
included more nicotine in their products than they disclosed.
Yesterday, the attorney general of Massachusetts opened an
investigation against JUUL alleging the company is "hooking" kids on
their products through youth-aimed advertisments.
It's a start.
But there's a long way yet to go.
There are dozens of manufacturers of e-cigarettes and retailers
fighting these actions by the FDA. E-cigarettes have the potential to
be just as prevalent as tobacco once was. In fact, the 16% of high
school seniors who use e-cigarettes is on par with the 15.5% of adults
in the U.S. who smoke cigarettes.
Make no mistake: this is an epidemic.
And, to the CEOs of those companies, that means hitting sales targets
and winning bonuses.
That's why these companies continue to aggressively market and sell
e-cigarettes that they know are attractive to youth. They're not in it
to prevent teens from getting addicted. They're in it to make money.
Hence, Big Tobacco companies like Philip Morris and Altria Group have
been acquiring e-cigarette brands. In 2015, it was a $3.4 billion
market in the U.S. alone.
And they're ready to fight to protect those profits.
They're spending more than $20 million a year lobbying Congress to keep
the laws lax.
They're putting out their own research that claims e-cigarettes pose
only a minimal risk to users despite no long-term evidence available to
make that claim.
They're spending millions of dollars in aggressive marketing tactics.
And, they're using candy and fruit flavors to continually addict new
generations of youth.
But I know that we can win because we've been here before.
Big Tobacco used lobbyists, aggressive marketing, targeted teen users,
and even produced its own research to fight the truth. But the truth
won out. It wasn't easy, but we, the little people, beat Big Tobacco.
And, we can beat e-cigarettes, too.
It's up to us to protect future generations from Big Tobacco 2.0. I
hope you'll consider signing up for emails from us about opportunities
to advocate for prevention on this and other important issues. Just
click the link below and fill out the sign up page.
Again, I want to thank you. While there is still more work to do, we
are making progress.
Sincerely,
Marcie Seidel
Executive Director
Prevention Action Alliance
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