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FDA
Regulating Tobacco Products
By Corey Wakeley - Marketing Director
The law giving the Food and Drug
Administration the responsibility to regulate the manufacturing,
marketing and sale of tobacco products was signed by President
Obama on June 22, 2009. This law will restrict the marketing of
tobacco especially to children, ban candy and fruit flavored
cigarettes, ban the use of the terms “light” and “mild”
cigarettes, ban samples of free cigarettes, require large
graphic health warnings on the cigarette packages, and require
tobacco companies to disclose the ingredients in their tobacco
products.
These new regulations, among others, will
increase the number of tobacco users who quit and decrease the
number of people who start using tobacco, which in turn will
save lives and decrease the financial burden the use of tobacco
causes across the country.
The bill was sponsored by Senator Edward
Kennedy (D-MA) and U.S. Representatives Henry Waxman (D-CA) and
Todd Platts (R-PA).
For more information contact Corey Wakeley
at
corey@tobacco-free.net
A
Grand Finale
By Melanie Norris - Tobacco Prevention
Coordinator
The Richland High SHOUT group (Students
Helping Others Understand Tobacco) ended a great year of tobacco
awareness with an activity on their campus and volunteer work at
Kadlec’s Safe Kids Saturday. SHOUT members held a four square
tournament in the commons area at Richland High School and every
student who participated received a prize with an anti tobacco
message on it. It was a fun way to spread the anti tobacco
message and end a year of hard work from the SHOUT students.
About 10 members of Richland’s SHOUT club
also volunteered at Safe Kids Saturday, with hundreds of people
attending this event the student s were busy during this
successful event!
For more information contact Melanie Norris
at
melanie@tobacco-free.net
Youth Advisory Board Come Back
By Melanie Norris - Tobacco Prevention
Coordinator
With the return of the Youth Advisory Board
this September, high school students from Benton and Franklin
Counties will have the opportunity to volunteer at community
events, and target a specific tobacco issue in the community for
awareness and policy change. This will give students from
different high schools the opportunity to work together, share
ideas, and continue their work around tobacco awareness in the
community.
For more information contact Melanie Norris
at
melanie@tobacco-free.net
Increase in Compliance of
Youth Access Law
By Corey Wakeley - Compliance Check
Coordinator
This fiscal year, July 2008 through June
2009, proved to be a better year with an increase in compliance
of the Youth Access law. Benton and Franklin County tobacco
retailers sold far fewer tobacco products to minors during this
year compared to last year.
Tobacco Free Benton-Franklin Counties
attributes the improvement to an increase in the number of
checks being done in the bi-county area.
Traditionally, 13 compliance checks were
completed in Benton County and 7 checks in Franklin
County each month. These numbers were increase to 25 and 15
respectively, during the months of January through May and a
drop in sales to minors was seen as a result.
Last year Benton Counties compliance rate
fell to 85% and Franklin County wasn't much better with 86%
compliance. These number improved greatly during this past
fiscal year, where Benton County climbed to 93% compliance and
Franklin County had a 91% compliance rate.
The improvement in the bi-county rates is a
trend that will hopefully continue through the next year and
years to come.
For more information contact Corey Wakeley
at
corey@tobacco-free.net.
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