U.S. Colleges and Universities Deserve an 'A' for Going Tobacco-Free

, Assistant Secretary for Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Co-authored by
Cynthia Hallett, MPH
Executive Director
American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation
The Great American Smokeout (GASO), sponsored by the American Cancer Society, encourages smokers to quit for a day and plan to quit smoking for good. This year, celebrating GASO also involves recognizing the growing leadership of our nation’s colleges and universities in making campuses smoke- or tobacco-free.
Our physical environment affects the daily choices we make about life and health. For decades, such environments have promoted a cultural norm glamorizing tobacco use that has led to devastating outcomes. College and university campuses can prevent nicotine addiction among students by implementing tobacco-free campus policies and promoting healthy lifestyle choices.
As the 2012 Surgeon General’s Report Preventing Tobacco Use Among Youth and Young Adults illustrates, many lifestyle choices that lead to future health risk, including tobacco use, peak between 21 and 25 years of age. The number of smokers who started after age 18 has recently increased from 600,000 (2002) to 1 million (2010). This means that, ultimately, up to 1 million current college students could die prematurely from tobacco use.
In September of 2012, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), together with several key partners, launched the Tobacco Free College Campus Initiative (TFCCI) to encourage the voluntary adoption of tobacco-free policies at institutions of higher learning across the nation. It has been a remarkable year since the launch. Colleges and universities everywhere have launched campus conversations that remind their students, faculty and administration that the tobacco epidemic is far from solved. They have initiated inclusive dialogues about possible policy change options, and have considered new policies that could restore their campuses to places where health, not addiction, is the norm.
The Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights (ANR) Foundation, a non-lobbying, educational, nonprofit organization (501(c)3), creates comprehensive programs that support smoking prevention, the benefits of smoke-free air, and the right to breathe smoke-free air. The ANR Foundation has tracked, collected, and analyzed tobacco control laws around the country since the early 1980s. Each quarter, the ANR Foundation unveils updated information to communicate the current status of smoke-free air environments. Today, in honor of GASO, ANR Foundation has released the latest list of smoke- and tobacco-free schools.
When the TFCCI began in September 2012, 774 colleges and universities were smoke- or tobacco-free. Today, there are more than 1127 100% smoke-free campuses and 758 of those are 100% tobacco-free. We celebrate the dramatic rise in that number, not only because it represents a rapidly growing percentage of the 4,583 colleges and universities in the United States, but also because it reflects the improved health of students today that will reduce risk of illness and death tomorrow.
We can offer many resources for user-friendly information about tobacco prevention and cessation. Everyone who is interested in quitting should seek help from a tobacco cessation program such as smokefree.gov, 1-800-QUIT-NOW or through their health insurance plans. As a result of the Affordable Care Act, most private health insurance plans will now cover the cost of cessation interventions for tobacco users. HHS’ website,BeTobaccoFree.gov, represents another valuable resource that includes user-friendly information on the health impact of tobacco use, federal and state laws and policies, and the best guidance on how to quit. Also, January 2014 marks the 50th anniversary of the first Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health. A new Report will highlight a half-century of progress in tobacco control and prevention, as well as present new data on the health consequences of tobacco use.
Deglamorizing and denormalizing tobacco use for adolescents and young adults can help our country reclaim a social norm of health and wellness. As we encourage our loved ones to quit today, let’s also recognize the leadership of colleges and universities around the country that will make our country stronger and healthier for the future.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-howard-k-koh/us-colleges-and-universit_b_4312131.html

A case against e-cigarettes

By MANDY JORDAN, Bismarck
Today we celebrate the Great American Smokeout. It is a national campaign that brings awareness to the dangers of tobacco and secondhand smoke, and encourages people who smoke to quit.
According to statistics from BreatheND, this year in North Dakota 19.4 percent of high school students will smoke and will purchase 1.9 million packs of cigarettes. In our community, 42,000 kids are exposed to secondhand smoke on a daily basis.
Last year, Century SADD testified in front of legislators regarding the new threat to our young people’s health called e-cigarettes. These are electronic devices that deliver nicotine to the body through vapor. Not only can these be candy-flavored, you can now buy cartoon wraps for them to make them visually pleasing. They are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration and contain carcinogens and toxic chemicals such as diethylene glycol, which is found in antifreeze.
Although the carton says that you need to be 18 to purchase these, we have seen our peers who are under 18 using this product. They are now being sold at a kiosk in a local mall, which is cleverly located by stores where young people shop.
The tobacco industry is trying to say that this is a “harms reduction” product that is intended to help people quit smoking. It is even trying to get North Dakota taxpayers to pay for research that benefits the industry. (Keep in mind that tobacco companies own this product.) It is our strong belief that “harms reduction” is a lie and that e-cigs are a gateway drug that will ultimately create long-term addiction versus reduction. Please join us in our effort to put an end to not only tobacco use, but the new threat of e-cigarettes.
(This letter was signed by Mandy Jordan and members of Century High School SADD. Laurie Foerderer is the adviser.)
http://bismarcktribune.com/news/opinion/mailbag/a-case-against-e-cigarettes/article_fe0eb3b8-522c-11e3-827c-0019bb2963f4.html

Forum editorial: Smokeout still has work to do

In 1976 a group of anti-smoking activists got the idea of having a national day when smokers would be urged to not smoke. From that modest beginning at the California Division of the American Cancer Society emerged The Great American Smokeout, which has been observed every year since then on the third Thursday of November. By any measure, it’s been a success. There is more work to do.
These days, the only people who deny the dire health effects of tobacco use are, well, not bright. Only those who cling to peculiar notions of “personal freedom” and business privilege sans business responsibility dismiss the damage to personal health and public health from tobacco use. They comprise a smaller minority every day, as more enlightened Americans favor laws and regulation to protect individual and public health.
It’s not a new concern. Efforts to restrict smoking in public places go back to 1908 in New York City, where the city council approved a ban on women from smoking anywhere except in their homes. The mayor vetoed the ordinance.
Since then, the nation, often led by states, has moved steadily toward smoke-free environments in public venues and private places that cater to the public, such as restaurants. Today only a handful of states do not have statewide smoking bans. Minnesota approved a ban in 2007. North Dakotans had to go to the polls in 2012 to secure a comprehensive ban after session after session of the Legislature capitulated to the tobacco lobby and refused to enact a statewide ban. Before the 2012 vote, voters in several cities, including Fargo and West Fargo, had pointed the way.
Smoking has not gone away. It won’t anytime soon. About 19 percent of Americans still light up, but that level is way down from the days when up to 60 percent of adults in many states used tobacco in its various forms. Progress has been steady and impressive, and it’s not always been a legislature or ballot measure that drove the issue. In many cities and states, private sector businesses were ahead of public policy in imposing smoking bans.
Credit must go to the American Cancer Society’s Great American Smokeout for keeping the issue in front of Americans. Together with a plethora of medical organizations, public health agencies, schools, attorneys general who were willing to challenge Big Tobacco (and win) and many other efforts, the message has been received. Even those people who smoke for reasons they believe to be legitimate understand what they are doing to themselves by smoking and to others via secondhand smoke. Given the unassailable science and medical evidence, how could they not know?
And so to that dwindling group, today’s Smokeout says: “Give it up for the day. Try to quit.” If a few do, that’s more progress.
——–
Forum editorials represent the opinion of Forum management and the newspaper’s Editorial Board.
http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/418984/

Quitters are winners: The benefits of kicking the tobacco habit

By Richard A. Claiborne

We all know the bad news about smoking, including health risks, expense and even criticism from non-smokers. But, for many people, scare tactics are not helpful when it comes to quitting. To put a positive spin on smoking cessation, let’s look at the benefits of living tobacco-free and how to go about quitting.
The greatest benefit to kicking the habit is dramatically improving your health. According to a report from the Surgeon General, as soon as you take that last puff, your body is busy repairing itself. Just one day after stopping, the heart rate and blood pressure drop and the carbon monoxide level drops to normal. By nine months, coughing and shortness of breath decrease; lungs start to regain normal function, increasing the ability to handle mucus, clean the lungs and reduce the risk of infection. At one year, the risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a smoker, and by five years, the report says the risks of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus and bladder are cut in half. After 15 years of living smoke-free, the risk of coronary heart disease and many cancers is that of a non-smoker.
Other benefits of living nicotine-free include:
•  Feeling in charge of your actions.
•  Knowing you are not bothering others with your smoke.
•  Saving money (not to mention time looking for a place to smoke).
•  Smelling better! Your hair, clothes, breath, care, home and kids won’t smell like smoke.
•  Enjoying an increased sense of smell.
•  Having fewer worries – about health, money, having to make sure you have a cigarette supply.
•  Looking and feeling better! Your skin will look healthier.
•  Having more energy.

How to quit

Those most successful at quitting are those who make a firm commitment, have a plan and work hand in hand with their physician to tailor a program to meet their unique needs. So:
•  Make a commitment and pick a “quit day.” Mark it on your calendar, tell friends and family and seek out support systems so you will feel accountable to achieve your goal.
•  Prepare your surroundings. Get rid of cigarettes and remove smoking triggers, including inviting smoking areas.
•  Stock up on suckers and gum to satisfy oral cravings.
•  Create distractions and have plans for how you will stay busy. Make a list of friends to call.
•  Make an appointment with your doctor. Your doctor can help you decide if you would benefit from anti-smoking medication or a support group.

Nicotine replacement therapy

Nicotine replacement therapy involves replacing cigarettes with other nicotine substitutes. Therapies work by delivering small and steady doses of nicotine into the body to relieve some of the withdrawal symptoms without the tars and poisonous gases found in cigarettes. This helps smokers focus on breaking their psychological addiction and learn new behaviors and coping skills.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved five types of nicotine replacement therapies: gum, lozenges and patches, which can be purchased over the counter; and nasal sprays and inhalers, which require a prescription. These products can be very helpful in the initial stages of quitting and withdrawal. However, nicotine is addictive and a person can transfer their dependence from cigarettes to the other therapy, particularly the fast delivery of nasal spray. Use only as prescribed by your doctor.

Prescription medications

These oral medications help you stop smoking by reducing cravings and withdrawal symptoms without the use of nicotine. Some can be used along with nicotine replacement therapies, and some must be started before your planned quit day.
Varenicline (Chantix) is a prescription medicine developed to help people stop smoking by interfering with nicotine receptors in the brain. It has a duel effect: It reduces the pleasure a person gets from smoking, and reduces the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal. It is typically started before your quit date. Bupropion (Zyban) is another effective prescription smoking cessation medicine. Several studies have shown taking medication can more than double the chances of quitting compared to taking no medicines at all. Medications are most effective when used as part of a comprehensive cessation program monitored by your physician.

Alternative therapies

•  Hypnosis – Places you in a deeply relaxed state where you are open to suggestions that strengthen your resolve to quit smoking.
•  Behavioral therapy – Nicotine addiction is related to the habitual behaviors involved in smoking. Behavior therapy focuses on learning new coping skills and breaking those habits.
•  Counseling – Participating in individual or group counseling can be beneficial in the educational and motivational aspects of smoking cessation. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the combination of medication and counseling is more effective for smoking cessation than either medication or counseling alone.
Kicking the habit is hard work but it can be done. With a plan tailored to your needs, you can break the addiction, manage your cravings and join the millions of people who have quit smoking for good. If you are ready to quit, talk to your physician.

Richard A. Claiborne practices in pulmonary medicine at Via Christi Clinic, 3311 E. Murdock. He may be reached at 316-689-9325.

http://www.kansas.com/2013/11/09/3106682/quitters-are-winners-the-benefits.html

Don't believe e-cigarette hype

By: Janie Heath
Several weeks back, “Saturday Night Live” spoofed the increasing ubiquity and purported safety of e-cigarettes by touting its own fictitious product — “e-meth.” The skit, which included “Breaking Bad’s” Jesse Pinkman (actor Aaron Paul), offered e-meth as a sensible smokeless alternative to crystal meth itself — a completely far-fetched and ridiculous claim.
It was also quite laughable — until you realize that e-cigarette companies are hawking their product as a “safe cigarette” in much the same way.
It’s no joke. And e-cigarettes are uniquely poised at the moment to either be regulated by the government as tobacco products should be or to enjoy looser, less strict regulation.
Companies that make e-cigarettes — battery-operated sticks made of plastic or metal that release vapor, rather than smoke, to deliver nicotine in a warmed mist of diethylene glycol, propylene glycol and carcinogenic nitrosamines — are counting on the latter. These companies hope that e-cigarettes — already a $2 billion a year endeavor — might just save a dying U.S. tobacco industry.
Using the swaying power of actors Stephen Dorff and Jenny McCarthy, companies such as Blucigs — which offers nicotine delivered in flavors from pina colada to peach schnapps, sure to appeal to youngsters who gravitate toward the exploding market of flavored cigarettes — these companies are ramping up for a fight. Promises like “You can smoke at a basketball game if you want to” and “We’re all adults — it’s time we take our freedom back” offer smokers and would-be e-cigarette buyers a chance to tap into the bygone era when smoking was cool and its deadly health effects were not known.
The thing is, today we know better.
What we don’t know is the science as to whether e-cigarettes are a safer alternative or just more of the same. As a professional nurse, I wager the latter.
The American Lung Association is very concerned about the potential health consequences of electronic cigarettes, as well as claims that they can be used to help smokers quit.
There is no government oversight of these products. And, absent oversight by the Federal Drug Administration, there is no way for the public health and medical community or for consumers to know what chemicals are actually contained in e-cigarettes — or what the short- and long-term health implications of using them or being around them might be.
It’s why the American Lung Association is calling on the Obama administration to propose meaningful regulation of these products to protect to public health.
There are roughly 250 different e-cigarette products on the market today. Based on evidence so far, there’s nothing safe about them —not even as a gateway to cessation. In the FDA’s own research on e-cigarettes from 2009, lab tests revealed detectable levels of toxic cancer-causing chemicals, including an ingredient used in anti-freeze, in two leading brands of e-cigarettes and 18 various cartridges. Other analyses have found formaldehyde, benzene and tobacco-specific nitrosamines, a carcinogen, in e-cigarettes’ emissions, pointing out the poisons in secondhand exposure.
This why it’s urgent for the FDA to immediately begin its regulatory oversight of e-cigarettes, which would include ingredient disclosures by manufacturers. While there is certainly more to learn, it’s clear there is a great deal to be concerned about — especially in the absence of any sort of oversight.
As a former smoker myself, I understand all too well the hope for a safe and evidence-based way to break the habit — but e-cigarettes just are not the way. There is no magic bullet; quitting smoking is incredibly hard to do. Nicotine’s the reason. And at present, there is no evidence supporting e-cigarettes as the best way to kick the habit.
Americans have the freedom to decide, of course, what they do with their bodies — and knowing what we know about the debilitating diseases and deaths faced by many former smokers, I think we will choose to kick the e-cigarette habit before it garners a foothold. E-cigarettes might seem to tout a pathway to tobacco-less freedom, but they entangle individuals in the same poisons as their smoke-filled grandfathers.
We’re all adults here: It’s time to take back our freedom — and choose health for ourselves, our children and communities.
Janie Heath, PhD, is the Thomas A. Saunders III Professor of Nursing and associate dean for academic programs at the University of Virginia School of Nursing.
http://www.dailyprogress.com/opinion/guest_columnists/don-t-believe-e-cigarette-hype/article_be688534-4491-11e3-a58b-001a4bcf6878.html

Maryland should hike tobacco taxes again

By , Washington Post

BOOSTING TAXES on cigarettes is an effective way to cut smoking rates among adults and, even more, among those college-age and younger, along with tobacco-related disease and death. A case in point is Maryland, where the incidence of smoking fell by a third from 1998 to 2010, a period during which the state more than quintupled its cigarette tax.
By the same token, states that have allowed cigarette levies to remain low, under the sway of Big Tobacco or anti-tax sentiment, generally suffer from higher smoking rates and the resulting impact on public health. Virginia’s cigarette tax is second-lowest in the nation, after Missouri’s; it is an example of a state that extends its smokers a license to kill — themselves.
Pleased with the results in Maryland, anti-
tobacco advocates want to build on their success. On the merits, they have an easy case to make. After the state doubled its levy in 2008, to $2 per pack, cigarette sales dropped sharply. Now advocates want to raise the per pack tax again, to $3. Lawmakers should take note.
Higher taxes are particularly effective in cutting tobacco use among younger smokers, whose habits are less entrenched and who are more sensitive to price. As a direct result of the 2008 tax increase, youth smoking rates plummeted by almost a third in two years. In 2009, just 12 percent of Maryland youths were smokers, compared with a national rate of almost 20 percent.
And while adult smokers are somewhat less sensitive to price increases, Maryland’s 2008 tax hike helped cut the number of adult smokers by about 13 percent.
Complacency is the wrong course of action. Anti-tobacco advocates point out that following the big drop after 2008, smoking rates in Maryland have started to inch up again over the past few years. That coincides with an 80 percent cut in spending on the state’s main anti-smoking program, which aims to help people to quit or not start in the first place. Despite its relatively high tax rate on cigarettes, Maryland ranks just 34th nationally among the states in spending on its anti-smoking program.
Each of the three increases in Maryland’s cigarette tax over the past dozen years has been followed immediately by a sharp drop in sales. True, some Maryland smokers may simply cross the border to buy their cartons in low-tax Virginia. But more have quit or cut back, as state-by-state smoking rates suggest.
The tobacco lobby remains strong enough to push back against further increases. In Annapolis, a bill this year to raise the state’s per-pack tax to $3 died in committee. A similar effort in the legislative session starting in January may suffer the same fate. Anti-smoking advocates are focusing their efforts on the next year or two in the legislative calendar. They should be helped both by the counter-example of Virginia — and by the facts.
Washington Post Editorials –  Editorials represent the views of The Washington Post as an institution, as determined through debate among members of the editorial board. News reporters and editors never contribute to editorial board discussions, and editorial board members don’t have any role in news coverage.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/maryland-should-hike-tobacco-taxes-again/2013/11/03/820e5ffc-433b-11e3-a624-41d661b0bb78_story.html

Look at e-cigarettes with a questioning eye

By: Erin Hill-Oban, Executive Director, Tobacco Free North Dakota
There’s been a lot of buzz lately regarding electronic cigarettes and the rise in popularity (and sales) they’ve seen all across the country, including right here in North Dakota.  Whether news and opinions have come from the mouths of trusted news sources, Big Tobacco (which now manufactures e-cigarettes), health professionals, or e-cigarette users themselves, we should all stay informed.
Tobacco Free North Dakota (TFND) would like to add the voice of our organization and our members to the conversation.  We have no interest in scaring the public; rather, we feel education and information is important.  What we know about e-cigarettes for certain, unfortunately, is pretty minimal.
As of today, there is not enough data collected nor studies conducted to determine how safe or unsafe these products are OR to prove e-cigarettes are effective cessation devices.  Tobacco companies are promoting e-cigarettes as a means to help users quit, but until science backs up that claim, TFND cannot and will not endorse it.  NDQuits provides excellent (and free) services – both counseling and access to FDA-approved nicotine replacement therapy – to North Dakotans who wish to quit.
In addition, e-cigarettes are not regulated by the FDA as a tobacco product, and therefore, are neither taxed as such nor have age restrictions placed on their sales.  That does, in fact, mean your 10-year-old child or grandchild could legally purchase these devices.  Though we hope many retailers in our state would deny their purchase based on morals, it’s irresponsible not to have laws in place to prevent our kids from that kind of access.
TFND is genuinely concerned about reports of e-cigarette explosions, studies that show youth use of e-cigarettes doubling in just one year, and the knowledge that adolescents have found ways to alter these devices to smoke other drugs, like marijuana, without a detectable scent.
TFND wants answers and common sense protections put in place by both the FDA and our state policymakers, a goal we will be working toward leading up to the next state legislative session in 2015.  In the meantime, we encourage the public to stay informed, proceed with caution, and visit with your district legislators about any shared concerns you may have.
http://www.thedickinsonpress.com/content/look-e-cigarettes-questioning-eye
http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/277311/group/homepage/
http://www.jamestownsun.com/content/letter-editor-e-cigarettes-should-be-regulated-state
http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/417138/

E-Cigarettes A Blast From The Past, In A Bad Way

By Erica Sebastian and Jonathan Chaffee Special to the Olean Times Herald
Youth love to trick-or-treat on Halloween. Unfortunately, there is one product that is more trick than treat: e-cigarettes look and taste like a treat, but contain a nicotine solution that is turned into a vapor that users inhale.
The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Youth Tobacco Survey states that e-cigarette use among middle and high school students has doubled since 2011. This growth can be attributed to the variety of flavors of e-cigarettes, such as chocolate, vanilla, cookies and cream and fruit flavors that appeal to teens and young adults.
E-cigarette advertisements are also appearing on television and in magazines. E-cigarettes’ formula for success is not that much different from how the tobacco industry marketed cigarettes.
Stanton Glantz, who directs the Center For Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California-San Francisco, says, “They’re making health claims. They’re using celebrities, movies, television. It’s just like getting into a time machine.”
In 2009, the FDA tested e-cigarettes from two leading manufacturers and found detectable levels of toxins and carcinogens (cancer-causing agents) in their cartridges.
Any product designed to deliver more than trace amounts of nicotine can lead to addiction. As such, the sale and distribution of these products should only occur after these products are appropriately regulated by the FDA.
The FDA has not approved e-cigarettes as smoking-cessation devices. To date, there are no well-controlled studies that test the efficacy of e-cigarettes as a smoking-cessation device despite industry ads to the contrary.
New York has made great strides in reducing youth smoking rates. High school youth smoking rates are down nearly 60 percent from 2000 to 2012. The introduction of e-cigarettes threatens the substantial gains made in reducing youth smoking in New York.
(Ms. Sebastian is the Cessation Center coordinator for Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua and Wyoming counties; Mr. Chaffee is the Reality Check Program coordinator for Allegany, Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties.)
http://www.oleantimesherald.com/editorial/article_779e64d0-4300-11e3-92ff-001a4bcf887a.html

Editorial: Kids and e-cigs

Gainsville Sun Editorial:
As anti-smoking campaigns reduce tobacco use among young people, public health advocates see a new threat in electronic cigarettes.

E-cigarettes convert liquid nicotine into a vapor that users inhale. They come in flavors such as various types of fruits and candies, potentially attracting children to use them.
The 2013 Florida Youth Tobacco Survey found that 12 percent of high school students had tried e-cigarettes, an increase of 102 percent since 2011.
Alachua County Commissioner Robert Hutchinson asked staff to draft an ordinance to ban the sale of e-cigarettes to minors, require them to be placed behind counters in stores and prohibit their use in non-smoking areas. Clay County has enacted and Marion County is considering similar measures.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is also considering the regulation of e-cigarettes. A federal rule would be more effective than a patchwork of local ordinances.
In the meantime, Alachua County and other municipalities are right to work to keep e-cigarettes out of the hands of minors. Yet the county should resist the urge to regulate the personal behavior of adults that doesn’t affect others.
Some research suggests that e-cigarettes help a small percentage of tobacco users quit. But the health effects of inhaling nicotine vapor are unclear, and the track record of the tobacco companies that sell some e-cigarette brands gives reason to be skeptical of claims that it is a safe alternative to smoking.
It’s reasonable to regulate an addictive product that poses potential health risks. Hopefully the FDA soon does it job and prevents the need for Alachua County to act.
http://www.gainesville.com/article/20131102/OPINION01/131039866/-1/entertainment?Title=Editorial-Kids-and-e-cigs&tc=ar

Camels: 100 years and still killing

By Robert N. Proctor
We’re quietly approaching the 100th anniversary of the modern cigarette, but don’t expect much in the way of fanfare. Cigarette sales have been falling since 1981, when 630 billion were smoked in the United States. Now we smoke only about 300 billion in any given year, mostly in the style of the “American blend” introduced by Camels.
Camels were first sold in October 1913. Only 1 million were sold that first year, but this quickly grew to 425 million in 1914 and to 6.5 billion two years later. Twenty-one billion were sold in 1919, and by the early 1920s, nearly half of all cigarettes sold in the U.S. were Camels.
And though other “standard brands” were soon introduced — Chesterfields, Lucky Strikes and Old Golds — Camels still had a 30 percent share of the cigarette market in the late 1940s. By its 65th anniversary in 1978, the brand had sold more than 3 trillion sticks. Camel still holds the record for the most cigarettes sold in a single year: 105 billion in 1952.
The success of the brand is traceable partly to marketing genius. N.W. Ayer & Son was the agency hired to handle the launch, which began with a teaser campaign. Newspapers nationwide announced “the Camels are coming,” with no hint that the blitz was for a new brand of cigarettes. (Reynolds had not even sold cigarettes before 1912.) One ad crowed that “Tomorrow there’ll be more CAMELS in this town than in all Asia and Africa combined!”
The cigarettes came in a new kind of packaging. Camels were the first cigarette sold in that boxy “cup” we now identify as a cigarette pack, with 20 cigarettes per. Camels were also the first smoke to be sold in cartons of 200, and the first sold coast to coast. And (crucially) the first to incorporate what came to be known as “the American blend,” a juiced-up concoction of flue-cured and burley tobacco leaf that was both mild enough to be inhaled and sweet from sugars added to the mix.
A lot has changed since then. The machines that produced those early Camels could manage only seven or eight per second; today’s machines spit out 20,000 sticks per minute, or about 330 per second. And cigarettes today are far more affordable, even with all those taxes going to governments (“the second addiction”). Cigarettes used to be a luxury smoked by dandies and the effete; now they are more likely to be smoked by the mentally ill and destitute.
Some things, though, haven’t changed. Cigarettes still kill about half their long-term users, despite industry bluster about filters, low tars and lights, none of which has made smoking safer. Cigarettes still contain arsenic and cyanide and radioactive polonium-210, the poison used to kill that Russian spy in London a few years back. Cigarettes cause one death for every million smoked, which means that the 4 trillion Camels consumed over the last 100 years have probably caused about 4 million deaths.
And it would be wrong to think of the cigarette business as moribund. Shareholders of the three largest makers in the U.S. all earn dividends in excess of 4 percent, and those holding stock in Altria (parent company of Philip Morris) earn closer to 6 percent.
Youth is still key to the business because most smokers start in their teens and stay fiercely brand loyal. Joe Camel was retired in 1997, but until 2009 (when Congress passed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act), Camels came in candy-fruit-tropical flavors, including Camel Mandarin Mint and Camel Mandalay Lime. Camel No. 9s, advertised as “light and luscious” and sold in feminine black and pink packs, are still allowed on the market, despite fears that this “Barbie cigarette” targets girls. And Camel Crush offers a hit of mint to those who like menthol “refreshment.” Advertising for such products has increased in recent months, and on my last trip to the dentist, I found four different ads for cigarettes in magazines in the waiting room.
Camel’s anniversary is really only being celebrated overseas, where cigarettes sales remain robust. Worldwide, 6 trillion cigarettes (of all brands) were sold in 2012, which explains why smoking remains the leading preventable cause of death. JTI, the company that owns rights to the Camel brand abroad, is celebrating with a giant “iPad controlled video jukebox” in the shape of a camel, with slogans such as “Discover more” and “Inspiring creativity since 1913.” Most Europeans can buy packs celebrating the anniversary, and Mexico City has held brand-themed events. All of which helps keep Camels among the five bestselling brands in the world.
Here in the birthplace of Camels, though, things are quieter. The cigarette is something of a cardiopulmonary anachronism, and not much to party about. Camel’s success has been literally breathtaking, caravaning millions into that sleep from which we never awake.
Robert N. Proctor is a professor of the history of science at Stanford University. He wrote this for the LA Times.
http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_24381870/camels-100-years-and-still-killing