A new $1.2 million campaign to promote tobacco prohibition
on college campuses was announced on September 19 (here).
As I have noted, the federal government annually spends hundreds of millions of dollars in support of academic anti-tobacco research (here). This time, the money is coming from pharmacy giant CVS’s Health Foundation as part of a five-year, $50 million campaign. CVS collaborators include the misnamed Truth Initiative (see here and here) and the American Cancer Society, whose numerous prohibitionist exploits are reported in this blog (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here).
Campaign awards to
several Texas schools were reported in a Houston Chronicle article (here) that included illustrations offering and refuting four tobacco “myths”. In this effort, the paper (or the campaign) repeated
fantastical claims that are often made by prohibitionists.
Myth #1: “Almost no one smokes any more [sic].” A myth, by definition, is a widely held view,
so this attempt fails from the start. The latest data from the CDC, for 2016, shows
38 million smokers in the United States – a substantial and highly visible
group of people, all in need of effective quit-smoking tools and support.
Myth #2: “e-Cigarettes, hookahs
and cigars are safe alternatives.” Again,
few people hold this view (here).
Scientists, the industry and public
health officials agree that no form of tobacco use is perfectly “safe.” Eminent authorities like Britain’s Royal
College of Physicians, however, have pronounced that vaping “is unlikely to
exceed 5% of the harm from smoking tobacco.” (here) Furthermore, FDA data shows that smoking one
or two cigars a day have almost no health risks (here
and here).
Myth #3: “Infrequent, social smoking is harmless.” This is creating a myth when one doesn’t
exist.
Myth #4: “Smoking outside eliminates secondhand smoke
dangers.” Myths convey false
information. This statement is entirely
true.
Ironically, some viewers of the online Chronicle article are
shown an advertisement for Nicorette gum, reproduced here. While pharmaceutical nicotine has a known 93% quit-smoking
failure rate (here),
this ad touts one day of success – an extraordinarily low bar for cessation.
