One of the biggest concerns of community groups is about how the tobacco industry markets products to the Latino community by creating flavors tied to the culture.
Cancer is the leading cause of death among Latino people as they are also more likely to be diagnosed in later stages, be uninsured and experience serious financial hardship compared to their white counterparts.
The prevalence and concentration of tobacco retailers in an area correlate with increased tobacco usage and higher rates of young people beginning to smoke. These retailers are disproportionately located in low-income and communities of color, which already bear a disproportionate burden of tobacco-related illnesses such as diabetes, stroke, heart disease and cancer.
A ban on most flavored tobacco in California took effect last year, but a UC San Diego study shows bubble gum, horchata, and chicken-and-waffle-flavored products are just a click away, and possibly enticing a new generation of middle and high school smokers.
As a mother of three, Cynthia Knapp has her finger on the pulse of vaping inside her children’s schools.
“When my high schooler enters her restroom on campus, there’s many people in the big stall always vaping. There’s people vaping openly near the sinks. It’s normal, and it’s common. It’s very unfortunate when you consider the harm that these products are causing on our young kids,” Knapp said.
That’s why Knapp, who’s also a program manager for Say San Diego’s Smoke-Free Project, found UC San Diego’s study concerning. It shows online searches for flavored tobacco and vape products skyrocketed 162% after California banned the products last December. “Some of them, it looks like, they are in California, but not all of those are,” Eric said. Leas, Ph.D., who’s the principal investigator of the study published this month.
The findings raise concerns about potential loopholes in policy enforcement, due to an absence of clear-cut regulations, according to Leas.
“What we found in our study is that retailers might be selling online, more like basically exploiting this loophole where consumers are able to pretty easily go online and obtain access to what otherwise should be restricted products,” said Leas.
According to the 2023 National Youth Tobacco Survey, 2.1 million kids in the U.S. currently use e-cigarettes. Nearly 90% of them use flavored tobacco.
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