Tobacco marketing is targeting California's low-income and African
American youth, according to researchers who examined advertising
throughout the state.
Academic researchers funded by the state's Tobacco-Related Disease
Research Program found that there was greater visibility of menthol
cigarette advertising at retailers near high schools where there are
larger African American student populations.
According to the most recent statistics issued by the Federal
Trade Commission, the tobacco industry spent $10 billion on marketing in 2008.
"There is a systematic targeting (of disadvantaged communities) by
the tobacco industry, which is an extraordinary public health problem,"
said Lisa Henriksen of the Stanford Prevention Research Center, who
presented the research at a legislative briefing in Sacramento last
week. "The addition of menthol to cigarettes makes it easier to smoke
and more difficult to quit."
Henriksen's research, published last year, found that as the
proportion of black students increased at a California high school, so
did the
share
of both menthol-related advertising and Newport brand promotions at
nearby retailers.
The study looked at all cigarette advertising, but
specifically analyzed promotions and price discounts for Newport and
Marlboro, two of the most popular brands with underage smokers,
researchers said.
The University of Michigan's Robert Lipton also presented research at
the briefing showing that in the Los Angeles area, communities that
tended to be dense, poor and minority had greater rates of underage
tobacco sales.
Henriksen's ongoing
study
of menthol cigarette marketing has found that African American students
were better able to recognize a Newport ad than teens of other races.
Regardless of race, however, nonsmoking students who were familiar with
the Newport ad were 49 percent more likely to start using tobacco than
nonsmoking students who weren't.
And according to a recent analysis of California K-12 schools
conducted by Henriksen, tobacco retailers were within 600 feet of 24
percent of school campuses; 38 percent of schools were within 1,000 feet
of a place where cigarettes were sold. Stores near California high
schools featured an average of 25 cigarette ads, Henriksen said at the
briefing.
"We're really talking about a horrendous burden on low-income and
communities of color, where tobacco retailers are more highly
concentrated," Henriksen said. "The kinds of stores in those communities
contain more ads for cigarettes, and they also have more underage sales
violations."
A spokesman for Philip Morris' parent company, Altria Group, which
manufactures Marlboro cigarettes, said in a statement that the company
is "committed to responsibly marketing its cigarettes to adult smokers."
"Kids should not smoke any cigarettes, menthol or non-menthol,"
Altria spokesman David Sutton wrote in an e-mail. "Based on our review
of the limited literature and data available, menthol cigarettes do not
appear to have a unique role in smoking initiation."
Lorillard, the makers of Newport cigarettes, did not respond to a request for comment.
Although California has the second-lowest smoking rate in the country
at about 12 percent, tobacco use among African Americans in the state
is between 3 and 6 percent higher than the statewide average, according
to the California Department of Public Health.
Carol McGruder, co-chairwoman of the Oakland-based African American
Tobacco Control Leadership Council, said advertising aimed at black
youth is one reason smoking rates remain high. Henriksen's research
"validates what we knew, which is that the tobacco industry is targeting
our community," McGruder said.
Eliminating disparities and minimizing youth exposure to tobacco
advertising are among the goals of the state Tobacco Education and
Research Oversight Committee, which advises the California Tobacco
Control Program, said Dr. Michael Ong, an assistant professor at the
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA who chairs the committee.
Ong said locating tobacco retailers near schools is not good public
health policy. "In terms of trying to reduce harms from tobacco use in
California, we do need to try to further restrict easy access to
tobacco, particularly from our youth," he said.
Last week's briefing on tobacco advertising and menthol cigarettes
comes at a time when policy issues are being considered at the national
and state level.
The Food and Drug Administration is considering a ban on menthol
additives to cigarettes. In June, California voters will consider
Proposition 29, a ballot initiative that would impose a $1-per-pack tax
on cigarettes. A portion would go to research on tobacco, and the state
Tobacco Education and Research Oversight Committee has endorsed the
bill.
Cigarette makers like Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds oppose the
ballot initiative and have started a campaign committee called
Californians Against Out-of-Control
Taxes
and Spending, which argues that the state "can't afford to start a new
billion-dollar spending program when we have a $10+ billion budget
deficit and can't pay for critically-needed existing programs like
education and health care."
