Committed to Fr. Mike’s Legacy in Tobacco

Last week while attending ICCR’s Fall Conference, I attended the regular session on tobacco. As you likely know, Fr. Mike Crosby, O.F.M., Cap., our founder, was an early leader for his shareholder work in tobacco. Our session, in addition to our regular concerns on engagements with the tobacco industry, also included a significant conversation about vaping e-cigarettes.

By way of personal background, my grandmother smoked a pack a day of Pall Mall cigarettes. As a child, I detested the smell. At one point, I decided to leave my suitcase in our car when we would visit, as I did not want my clean clothes to smell of cigarettes. In other words, from early on, I never found smoking attractive. Consequently, I continually find myself surprised at its allure, especially to young people.

In reality, I should not be surprised. The attraction fits an old pattern. We remember the “seven dwarfs” testifying to Congress in 1994 that cigarettes are not addictive, in spite of having evidence to the contrary for decades. With Juul and e-cigarettes, we have a new addition to those archives. While regarded as proprietary information, e-cigarettes are more potent for their concentration of nicotine than cigarettes, according to Vox. In fact, a journal from Stanford University describes it as a “nicotine arms race.” In September, CNBC shared a CDC warning that Juul’s patented nicotine-salt technology allows for much more efficient delivery of nicotine directly to the brain, multiplying its highly addictive effect especially for teens. Hence, it was no surprise when Reuters reported yesterday that Juul disregarded early evidence that teens were becoming addicted. In September, Axios reported that the FDA warned Juul about its misleading advertising. In the face of mounting evidence of the damage caused, the White House planned to ban all flavored e-cigarettes, but the administration recently retreated that to banning all but menthol. Yesterday, the Journal of the American Medical Association published two studies: one on e-cigarette use among U.S. youth and another revealed the flavor preferences among U.S. youth. Simply put, the exclusion of menthol in the ban happens to coincide with the most popular flavor among American youth. Every Thursday, you can visit the website of the Center for Disease Control to see the updated statistics concerning Outbreak of Lung Injury Associated with the Use of E-Cigarette, or Vaping, Products. As of this writing, the CDC counts 1,888 cases of e-cigarette, or vaping, product use associated lung injury (EVALI) and 37 deaths.

We were fortunate to be joined in our session by Meredith Berkman, co-founder of Parents Against Vaping E-cigarettes (PAVE). Berkman and her co-founders were recently featured in the Wall Street Journal: Getting Through to Your Teen About the Dangers of Vaping. She shed some light on the allure to young people. Armed with the various devices and pods, she demonstrated how discreet the products are and how easy they are to use. The PAVE website has a lot of great information.

Simply put, Fr. Mike made advances in this work over the decades, but the fight by no means is finished. For the health of a younger generation, here and abroad, may we have some share of Fr. Mike’s zeal, courage, and wisdom in our engagement with the tobacco industry!