"New Year's Resolution to Stop Smoking" & "Great Smokeout" Campaigns Much Needed

SAN FRANCISCO - Dec. 15, 2016 - PRLog -- Posting Courtesy of Wright Enterprises~~
OP-ED
Celebrating the 40th Year of "Take A New Year's Resolution to Stop Smoking" and Over 50 Years of "The Great American Smokeout"

By Frederick S. Mayer, RPh, MPH, and Anh Le

We call on our communities to celebrate the "Take A New Year's Resolution to Stop Smoking" (TANYRSS) event this year, which begins December 15 and runs through Super Bowl Sunday, February 5th.

This annual event offers us the opportunity to urge cigarette smokers, family members, and friends to quit smoking to regain their health, and to address other tobacco issues which confront our communities.

As a pharmacist who operated my own pharmacy in Sausalito, I (Fred Mayer) founded the "Great American Smokeout" in 1967 to help educate smokers to quit their deadly habit.  Since then, over 50 million Americans have quit smoking as a result of the "Great American Smokeout."  I also founded "Take A New Year's Resolution to Stop Smoking" forty years ago.

While the smoking rates among Americans have decreased significantly since the first U.S. Surgeon Generals's Report on Smoking and Health was issued in 1964, cigarette smoking remains the major single cause of cancer mortality in the U.S.

1 in 5 deaths each year is due to cigarette smoking and tobacco use.  Smoking is the most preventable cause of death in our society.

Lung cancer, a consequence of cigarette smoking, is the leading cause of cancer deaths.  Lung cancer can also be caused by exposure to second-hand smoke.

Cigarette smoking and tobacco use not only causes lung cancer, it also causes emphysema, chronic bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and cancers of the mouth, lips, nose, sinuses, voice box, throat, esophagus, stomach, pancreas, kidneys, bladder, uterus, cervix, colon, rectum, acute myeloid leukemia, and heart diseases, strokes, and heart attacks.

For smokers, quitting smoking can be a challenge.  Nicotine, a main ingredient in cigarettes, is more addictive than heroin, and that's why tobacco companies use it in their products.  Besides nicotine, each cigarette contains more than 400 "Class A" cancer-causing chemicals.

We know that smokers can successfully quit their deadly habit, through education and smoking cessation counseling from their physicians, pharmacists, and health care providers.

Cigar smoking, and the use of so-called electronic cigarettes or "E-Cigarettes," are also very harmful and pose public health dangers.

E-Cigarettes contain nicotine, and numerous cancer-causing chemicals, including nitrosamines.  The use of E-Cigarettes increases the risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, pancreas, and other cancers.

The U.S. Surgeon General Surgeon's on E-Cigarettes issued last week called the use of E-Cigarettes a major public health concern. Dr. Vivek Murthy stated that its use among youth now surpasses tobacco cigarette smoking.

The Surgeon General warned that E-Cigarette smoking among youths "harms the developing brains of teenagers," and calls on adopting ways to prevent young people from getting access to E-Cigarettes.

E-Cigarette smoking also "creates harmful aerosol for people around the user."

Many E-Cigarette products are manufactured by tobacco companies.  Some of the E-Cigarettes are flavored with candy-like flavors, such as bubble gum, caramel, blackberry, chocolate, strawberry, to lure youth.

The U.S. Surgeon General and we call on the immediate implementation and strict enforcement of previously approved regulations by the FDA of E-Cigarettes.

Cities such as San Francisco have been at the forefront for passing ordinances banning smoking in public places.

We applaud communities in Marin County, such as Corte Madera, Larkspur, for passing legislation which ban E-Cigarette smoking in public places.  We laud their leadership and trail blazing, and urge other communities to follow their example.

Finally, we urge all pharmacies to stop selling cigarettes and tobacco products.  CVS was a leader when it announced in 2014 that it would stop selling the deadly products.

We call on Walgreens, Rite Aid, and Safeway to stop all sales of cigarettes, tobacco products, and E-Cigarettes.

You can't advertise yourself as the best pharmacy in town while you sell cigarettes that kill people and sell E-Cigarettes that harm people's health and those around them.

If pharmacies and pharmacists are in the business to make people people healthy, they should not sell to their customers products whose purpose is to kill.  Pharmacists must uphold their professional and ethical standards and stop selling the products marketed by the Merchants of Death.

Frederick S. Mayer, RPh, MPH, founder of "The Great American Smokeout" and "Take A New Year's Resolution To Stop Smoking," has been a public health leader and activist in California and nationally for over five decades.  Mr. Mayer served as the President of the California Public Health Association.  He has been the leader in the statewide and national movement to ban tobacco sales from pharmacies. Mr. Mayer is the President and CEO of Pharmacy Planning Services (PPSI), a non-profit education, public health, and pharmacy organization in San Rafael, CA (www.ppsinc.org). Anh Le is a public health advocate in the San Francisco and Bay Area, statewide, and nationally.

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