Smoking kills. In Spain, there is a death every 11 minutes due to tobacco and it is estimated that it is responsible for 30% of all cancer deaths. If we don't do something, tobacco and its derivatives will continue to kill us. And despite these data, the tobacco industry continues to reinvent itself so as not to lose customers or lose business.
In the golden years of Hollywood, he used movie stars to promote his products by making smoking glamorous.. Neither then nor now has the industry stopped hiding the fact that its products, conventional tobacco and new devices, harm health and kill.
If before it was cigarettes, now it's vapers. If before they were the stars of Hollywood, now they are the Influencers. A study by our Association shows that 9 out of 10 young people are exposed to digital smoke through social networks and on-demand platforms. In addition, 57.2% of these young people believe that smoking is fashionable because actors, streamers or influencers do it. Early use of electronic cigarettes pushes adolescents and children to be traditional smokers in the future
Drafting: P. PEREZ Madrid
Early use of electronic cigarettes pushes adolescents and children to be traditional smokers in the future
stories. The váper arrives at school: “Cancer tastes like melon, watermelon, tangerine or mint”
Writing: SANDRA VILCHESMADRID
The váper arrives at school: “Cancer tastes like melon, watermelon, tangerine or mint”
Subsequently, an analysis to close the zoom on the networks showed that more than 13 million young followers were impacted between 2018 and 2023 with content that showed tobacco and new devices.. Thus, we cannot be surprised that young people start using tobacco earlier, at the age of 15, and that 1 in 2 students between the ages of 14 and 18 have used electronic cigarettes at some time. And this only in the digital realm.
The strategy also involves placing points of sale that are easily accessible to young people in places where they have fun and socialize, in attractive and modern establishments, where youthful graphic codes prevail, and even placing these products in stores and department stores next to sweets or in the vials of the boxes. Anything goes so that the consumer does not see danger in using these new devices, such as giving a vape to a girl for her communion.
The industry is the same, but the strategy has changed. The objective now is young people and tobacco multinationals are erected as champions of a tobacco-free and smoke-free society. For this they are doing two things: increasing their public presence by championing a society without conventional tobacco, without smoke, and, on the other, increasing their investments in innovative solutions that are sold as healthier such as heated tobacco, vapers, hookahs…. disguising them with bright colors and friendly flavors.
The increasing promotions of its leaders in the media spreading the “benefits” of these new products, showing themselves as defenders of a society free of conventional tobacco and smoke, is directly proportional to their need to maintain a business that harms health and Bush. They omit the real consequences for health that are as negative as being an intense risk factor for the development of cancer, as well as respiratory and cardiovascular diseases..
Advertising that heated tobacco or vapers generate healthier smoke is very dangerous for our society. For our children and for our grandchildren. There is already scientific evidence that shows that vapers are not harmless to health. They are addictive, increase the risk of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and could increase the risk of cancer.
Heated tobacco releases substances that are carcinogenic such as acrolein, acetaldehyde, and formaldehyde.. Regarding vapers, there are already records in the United States of a disease directly related to vapers, the origin and consequence of their consumption, which affects young people: EVALI, potentially fatal lung damage.. Let's not forget that these types of devices are becoming the gateway to smoking, since the lack of legal regulation in this regard allows their consumption in closed establishments or their sale in establishments that are not watertight.. Do we want to mortgage the health and lives of our youth? Is it necessary for them to consume these types of products? Why do we look the other way?
Extremadura, leader in consumption
If we zoom in on Extremadura, the trends are even more marked, the two Extremaduran provinces lead the ranking of the Ministry of Health in its report on tobacco consumption in 2022. Nothing more and nothing less than 43.3% of Extremadurans smoke daily, unseating Murcia (first in the 2019-2020 ranking) and Asturias (heading the 2017 list) from the first position, and 2,000 people die each year in our community due to tobacco. The most serious thing is that just a decade ago, 34% of the population in Extremadura smoked, registering a spectacular increase of almost 10 points.
We have to protect the population from tobacco and new products to protect them from cancer. From the Spanish Association Against Cancer we are aware that young people are the main objective of the tobacco industry and for this reason we have made an appeal to all political parties to eradicate all forms of advertising and promotion of tobacco, and of new tobacco products -including products related to and without nicotine-, from audiovisual platforms, social networks and other channels aimed at minors, as well as the regulation of sales spaces for these products to limit their access to minors.
We also ask that you guarantee an adequate legislative framework that protects children and adolescents from tobacco and its new products, preventing their consumption, reducing their attractiveness and accessibility..
Whether we achieve these measures as a society will depend on the health and lives of the youngest.
*Pedro Pastor, member of the National Council of the Spanish Association Against Cancer and president of the Association in Cáceres.
