Special Report: Surgeon General, CDC Empower Youth Activists

By Nick Fradkin and Tonya Veitch, Legacy Youth Activism Fellows

--

The Legacy Youth Activism Fellowship Program is an 18-month leadership & professional development program for young adults committed to tobacco prevention and control designed to offer training and support to advance local and national projects. Currently, there are 11 Fellows representing 10 different states.

--

One week ago, we were working at our respective jobs—Nick in Arizona and Tonya in California. A couple of emails and phone calls later, we were both booked to fly to the nation’s capital to attend and cover the press conference announcing the release of the 31st Surgeon General’s report on tobacco control, Preventing Tobacco Use Among Youth and Young Adults. As young anti-tobacco activists, this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to witness and share our government’s latest public declarations about the state of tobacco control.

Getting There

Nick Fradkin, Legacy Youth Activism Fellow

Asked to arrive at 9am, Nick took the Metro red line from Farragut North over to Judiciary Square and headed down to the Newseum on Pennsylvania Avenue, where the press conference would be starting at 10am. Nick went up to the 8^th floor, checked in, and learned that he had a reserved seat in the second row (not too bad!). As he was meeting with Legacy staff and getting the run-down on the morning, Nick spotted a familiar face walk into the room. It was Dr. Victor DeNoble, the original tobacco industry whistleblower and subject of the new documentary, Addiction Incorporated, which Nick had just seen at FilmBar in Phoenix two nights before. Nick introduced himself and said he enjoyed the film, so Dr. DeNoble gave Nick his card to stay in touch about an upcoming promotion in Phoenix.

Tonya Veitch, Legacy Youth Activism Fellow

Meanwhile, Tonya, who had just landed at nearby Reagan International Airport after a two-stop, red-eye trip to D.C. from San Jose, California, was quickly making her way to the Newseum. It had been a long night of traveling but Tonya was too excited thinking about the press conference to focus on how tired she was. She rushed off the plane and ran to a taxi, which arrived at the Newseum at about 9:30am. She checked in, put on her complimentary “We Can Be Tobacco-Free” button, and then proceeded into the press conference. Immediately, she was amazed by all the people and countless cameras. As she was about to call Nick so that they could meet up, she looked into the sea of people and saw a friendly face (Nick). After saying their hellos and getting up to speed from Nick and the team from Legacy, the two proceeded to their second row seats! The press conference was minutes away and as Tonya started noticing all the tobacco control activists make their way into the room she gasped to herself, “I’m here.”

Lights, Camera, Action

Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), opened the press conference with some high-level findings from the report and some brief thoughts about the state of youth tobacco prevention. She applauded the progress that our society has made since the first Surgeon General’s report on tobacco control in 1964, but she said that our progress is “not good enough,” considering that an estimated 443,000 people die per year from cigarette smoking—and, for each smoker’s death, two “replacements” under the age of 26 take up the same habit. Clearly, as the Secretary put it, “we have a lot more work to do,” as “one child picking up a tobacco product is one too many.”

Next to speak was Dr. Howard Koh, Assistant Secretary for Health at HHS, who echoed the Secretary’s words by insisting that youth tobacco use, as a “completely avoidable and completely preventable” phenomenon, is in a state of “heightened urgency.” Dr. Koh shared a number of striking findings with everyone, but perhaps the most memorable moment was when he emphatically said that advertising, movies and media featuring cigarette use cause youth to take up tobacco products. With $10 billion dollars spent per year on advertising, the tobacco industry has made it simple for us to conclude that “youth smoking is not an accident,” as the Assistant Secretary put it. Dr. Koh closed by saying that we need to “give our youth a fighting chance” against the temptation to try tobacco.

Dr. Regina Benjamin, Surgeon General
(Courtesy: Zimbio.com)

Finally, Dr. Regina Benjamin, United States Surgeon General, took the podium. Since 1964 the Surgeon General’s report has highlighted the dangers of tobacco; however, it has been 18 years (the 1994 Surgeon General report) since the report has specifically focused on youth! Dr. Benjamin hit the ground running by stating, “the burden of tobacco burdens all of us.” She followed with the most recent statistics about youth and young adult smoking rates and many were shocking to hear. For example: Did you know that for everyone one tobacco related death, there are two new youth smokers? We didn’t and we were shocked by this finding. Dr. Benjamin stressed that “we need to bring back that commitment to tobacco control that was so effective between 1997-2003.” The Surgeon General expressed that Tobacco Prevention and Education Programs have been effective in reducing youth and young adult smoking rates, so we can’t stop now just because those rates are at an all-time low. Like Secretary Sebelius said, “one child picking up a tobacco product is one too many.”

Lastly, the Surgeon General’s Video Challenge was released. This challenge encourages youth and young adults to share with the world why they choose NOT to buy tobacco (double entendre) in a short English or Spanish video. There will be four grand prize prizes ($1,000) and 12 runner-ups ($500). Dr. Benjamin’s got a jump-start on the competition and actually had a video to share with all of us at the press conference! This PSA will hopefully be coming to a town near you. Tonya is challenging the youth groups that she works with as well as college advocates in Santa Clara County. Will you?

Afterthoughts and Impact

As Legacy Youth Activism Fellows, our efforts epitomize the commitment that the Surgeon General challenged us to revive. 2,500 miles away from Washington, D.C., we plan to use the startling findings from the report in our own local advocacy efforts.

The fact that nearly all adults who smoke daily started smoking before age 26 is critical to Nick’s efforts in advocating for smoke-free universities in Arizona. While 80% of daily smokers started before age 18, Nick wants to make it clear that college administrators have a unique responsibility to address tobacco use in the 18-26 age range by adopting smoke-free or tobacco-free campus policies. Meanwhile, Tonya has been working with youth and young adults for the past two years on tobacco control efforts through a CPPW (Communities Putting Prevention to Work) grant; however, the funding is ending this month. Being at the press conference encouraged Tonya to fight to make tobacco prevention a priority within Santa Clara County. Even though we won’t have the same amount of funding that we’ve had for the past two years doesn’t mean we can’t continue to do amazing things; we just have to be more creative and financially savvy when it comes to opportunities.

We aren’t the only ones who will take this 899-page report and run with it. The nine other Legacy fellows and the other youth advocates who attended the press conference will surely do the same. Nick and Tonya met a great group of anti-tobacco activists from Youth Empowered Solutions from North Carolina. Their passion and dedication to tobacco control was evident and they seemed inspired to bring back what they learned to their hometowns (and they even got a head-start on their video!).

Overall, we had an amazing experience. We even got to meet and take pictures with the Surgeon General, herself. From the bottom of our hearts, we are truly grateful to Legacy for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Being at this press conference has inspired us to take what we’ve learned and share it with our communities. We truly feel that, together, we can end the tobacco epidemic.

From left: David Satcher, M.D., Ph.D.; Director, Satcher Health Leadership Institute; Director, Center of Excellence on Health Disparities; 16th Surgeon General of the U.S. - Tonya Veitch, Legacy Youth Activism Fellow - Nick Fradkin, Legacy Youth Activism Fellow - U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin, M.D., M.B.A., V.D.M., U.S. Public Health Service

Thank you to Legacy and the CDC for making this possible, and thank you to Kim Homer Vagadori of California Youth Advocacy Network, who (coincidentally) has been a mentor to both of us.