This week, the U.S. Surgeon General issued a Report on “Eliminating Tobacco-Related Disease and Death: Addressing Disparities.” This is the 35th Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health since 1964, a series of instrumental reports that inspired the name of our organization: Action on Smoking and Health.
ASH welcomes this report, which is written by Surgeon General Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, with many contributors including the Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and numerous highly-respected academics and scientists.
ASH’s programs seek to address the issues directly highlighted in the Surgeon General’s report, so much so that our key issues were highlighted in the Overview that the Surgeon General’s office published. Their overview laid out ten points that are essential to the report. They are also the subject of ASH’s central programs, and no doubt important to you too:
Human Rights: Human rights and social justice go hand in hand, and are highlighted in point 2 of the report overview.
“Tobacco-related health disparities are a social injustice, in addition to an economic and health burden. Addressing disparities requires reflection on the complex history of the commercialization of tobacco and both past and present-day experiences of racism, discrimination, and targeted marketing by the tobacco industry.”
Liability: ASH is a co-plaintiff in the lawsuit against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for their inaction on menthol. The lawsuit is described in the Surgeon General’s report, but our efforts around menthol are centered in a human rights-based argument; that Big Tobacco violated the rights of those it targeted with menthol advertising. This sentiment is echoed in the overview, point 5.
“For decades, the tobacco industry has targeted its products and marketing to specific groups, including through concentrated marketing in neighborhoods with greater percentages of Black people, Hispanic people, and residents with lower incomes. Tobacco companies employ multiple tactics to undermine tobacco prevention and control efforts and enhance their corporate image.”
Endgame: Endgame was highlighted as point 9 of the top ten findings in the report.
The report stated that, “Endgame efforts to eliminate tobacco-related disease, disability, and death should create opportunities and conditions for all people to live healthy lives that are free from commercial tobacco. Interventions designed to reduce the use of tobacco products and the influences of the tobacco industry on society should accompany efforts to remove the underlying social, structural, commercial, and political drivers of health inequities.”
We are inspired by the Surgeon General’s call to action in the report:
“The time is now to accelerate a whole-of-society effort to reach the tobacco endgame: a world in which zero lives are harmed by or lost to tobacco use. By driving down the appeal, availability, and addictiveness of tobacco products, we can make this more than just a possibility. We can make it a reality. Can we summon the moral courage as a nation to do so, for one another, for our children, and for generations to come?”
Here at ASH, we have the moral courage to act. We know you’re here because you do too.
Let’s continue to work together to truly END the tobacco epidemic within our lifetime.
