If there’s one thing the tobacco industry loves, it’s apathy. Big Tobacco gets giddy when we ignore the fact that secondhand smoke kills around 50,000 nonsmoking Americans every year, most of who are simply trying to get to work or take care of their families.
Pretending that secondhand smoke is just a bad odor can be a fatal mistake.
Secondhand smoke is like a tiny toxic waste dump on fire, loaded with fifty cancer-causing chemicals like arsenic (a heavy metal toxin), benzene (a chemical found in gasoline), cadmium (a metal used in batteries), and radioactive polonium-210; according to the National Cancer Institute.
Nonsmokers aren’t the only victims. The NYC Youth Risk Behavior Survey reported in 2007 that 6,000 children living in Queens currently smoke cigarettes.
Grocery stores and pharmacies, where kids think you buy food and medicine, push these deadly products with huge displays near children’s products like toys, stickers, and candy. Some stores keep cigarettes locked in a display case next to baby formula. This is how Big Tobacco tricks children into thinking that tobacco use is somehow normal.
To reduce secondhand smoke, we must reduce the number of children who start smoking and help people quit smoking.
That means getting tobacco products out of grocery stores and pharmacies, and keeping cigarette taxes high. Stores who do the right thing will be rewarded for putting their community above tobacco profits.
The Queens Smoke-Free Partnership and other programs funded by the New York State Tobacco Control Program help to keep Big Tobacco and their allies in the spotlight, and help to empower citizens against the tobacco industry’s target marketing aimed at children.
Big Tobacco’s $12.8 billion national marketing campaign causes a health and financial burden on our state that we cannot ignore.
Call 3-1-1 for help in quitting smoking.
Everyone has the right to breathe clean air. Isn’t it time you fought for yours?
Join the Queens Smoke-Free Partnership by calling 718-520-4922, or visit www.nycsmokefree.org/Queens.
