Despite years of aggressive efforts to tackle the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United States, tobacco use—largely cigarette smoking—still kills more than 480,000 Americans every single year. In fact, cigarettes are the only legal consumer product that, when used as intended, will kill half of all long-term users.
Today, one of the newest dangers both nationally and here on the Central Coast is electronic cigarettes, or vaping. Often advertised as safer than regular smoking, kids who never would have smoked a cigarette are now starting to vape, and a new generation is becoming addicted to nicotine. One of the main reasons students cite for use of these products is the wide variety of candy and fruit-flavored options. This is a significant issue in our schools, with over 20% of 11th graders having report vaping in the past 30 days.
Join host Kris Kington-Barker as she speaks with guests from the San Luis Obispo Tobacco Control Program: Inger Appanaitis, program manager; Courtney Rasmussen, health educator; and Nasseem Rouhani, health educator and certified tobacco treatment specialist, as they discuss how communities on the Central Coast can work together to decrease teen and adult smoking and, in turn, save lives.
Broadcast date: 7/18/2019
Central Coast Voices is sponsored by ACTION for Healthy Communities in collaboration with KCBX and made possible through underwriting by Joan Gellert-Sargen.
