Advocacy in Action: Academy’s Latest Anti-Smoking Efforts
The AAO-HNS supports state and federal legislation and regulations that help reduce the use of tobacco products and exposure to secondhand smoke in order to promote healthy environments and lifestyles for the public. Over the course of the past year, the Academy has worked to promote a variety of anti-smoking-related topics that have an overall impact in protecting children, youth, and adults from the consequences of tobacco and e-cigarette use.
The AAO-HNS supports state and federal legislation and regulations that help reduce the use of tobacco products and exposure to secondhand smoke in order to promote healthy environments and lifestyles for the public. Over the course of the past year, the Academy has worked to promote a variety of anti-smoking-related topics that have an overall impact in protecting children, youth, and adults from the consequences of tobacco and e-cigarette use.
In February 2020, the Academy along with the Tobacco Partners Coalition, worked to advance H.R. 2339, the “Reversing the Youth Tobacco Epidemic Act,” through the U.S. House of Representatives. This bill would prohibit all flavored tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, increase the minimum age for purchasing tobacco products to 21, ban all non-face-to-face sales for tobacco products, and protect kids from the marketing of tobacco products. Additionally, in September 2019, the Academy sent a letter to President Trump and the First Lady supporting the Administration’s plan to remove all non-tobacco flavored e-cigarettes from the market, including mint and menthol flavors, and urging the President to reject tobacco industry pleas to weaken this proposal.
More recently, on October 15, 2020, the AAO-HNS, together with 16 other medical professional societies and public health advocacy organizations, submitted an amicus brief in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to uphold the FDA’s ability to require graphic health warnings on cigarette packaging. The brief highlights that graphic warnings, as mandated by the FDA through the Final Rule “Required Warnings for Cigarette Packages and Advertisements,” are essential for effective communication to the public about the extraordinary range of health harms resultant from smoking.”
The Great American Smokeout is November 19, 2020.
For more patient information about secondhand smoke and children, vaping, and other ENT-related conditions impacted by smoking and vaping, go to ENThealth.org.