How to End This Youth Epidemic

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Help spread the word about the youth e-cigarette epidemic by sharing these graphics on social media. 

Leverage Your Voice in the Media

There are many ways to have your voice heard in the media to make your voice heard — you can respond to a timely newspaper article with a letter to the editor, express your opinion with an op-ed, or share your story with journalists. We’ve collected a few examples from parents below to help you get started.

Letters to the Editor from Parents:

• The F.D.A. Needs to Act on Vaping – The New York Times
• Letter: Children and teens vaping shouldn’t be normalized – San Jose Mercury News 
• Letter to the Editor: Help curb teen vThe F.D.A. Needs to Act on Vaping – The New York Times
• Letter: Children and teens vaping shouldn’t be normalized – San Jose Mercury News 
• Letter to the Editor: Help curb teen vaping – Delaware State News
• Letter to the editor: E-cigarettes are an epidemic for our kids – TRIBLive
• With flavored e-cigarette enforcement, Franchot acts like a governor should | Reader Commentary – Baltimore Sun
• Taking Action on E-Cigarettes – New York Times
• Letter: New York needs a ban on flavored tobacco – The Buffalo News

Op-eds from Parents:

• Op-Ed: Let’s call this youth vaping crisis what it is: A Juuling epidemic – Los Angeles Times
• Ban Flavored E-Cigarettes to Protect Our Children – The New York Times
• Commentary: End the youth vaping crisis before one more teen gets hooked — starting with that flavor ban the FDA promised – Chicago Tribune
• Hold the applause: E-cigs flavor ban is no ban at all – The Hill
• Why you should be worried if your teen smells like berries, cotton candy or mint – The Washington Post

Stories Featuring Parents:

• Trying to Curb a Teen Epidemic – U.S. News and World Report
• Do the Moms Fighting Against Big Vape Stand a Chance? – Mel Magazine
• What Juul’s Hiding – Scholastic
• If E-Cigs Were Romaine Lettuce, They’d Be Off The Shelf, Vaper’s Mom Tells Congress – NPR
• Getting Through to Your Teen About the Dangers of Vaping – The Wall Street Journal
• Parents, Advocates Protest Teen Vaping Outside JUUL Offices In Manhattan – CBS 2 New York
• In the ‘Juul room’: E-cigarettes spawn a form of teen addiction that worries doctors, parents and schools – The Washington Post
• When your child vapes, what’s a parent to do? – CNN

Contact Your Legislator

Phone Call Script:

Hi, my name is [NAME]. I’m a constituent from [TOWN]. I’m extremely concerned about the youth e-cigarette crisis in our country and the role Big Tobacco is playing by targeting my kid with flavored products, which are more kid-friendly and addictive than ever. Today’s devices come in thousands of fun flavors, deliver massive doses of nicotine and can even include built-in video games – and most are on the market illegally. I’d like to encourage [YOU / LEGISLATOR NAME] to pay attention to this issue and work to pass legislation that will end the sale of all flavored e-cigarettes and other flavored tobacco products. Thank you for your hard work!

Email Template:

Dear [LEGISLATOR’S NAME]

I am writing about the need to address the youth e-cigarette crisis that is sweeping across our country and ask for your help in driving down youth tobacco use.

Big Tobacco has placed a target on our kids’ backs with the marketing of flavored e-cigarettes, flavored cigars, and menthol cigarettes. Colorful packaging and sweet flavors such as cotton candy, chocolate, gummy bear, and fruit make flavored tobacco products hard to distinguish from candy and other products kids like.

Today’s flavored tobacco products, especially e-cigarettes, are more kid-friendly and addictive than ever. These devices come in thousands of fun flavors, deliver massive doses of nicotine and can even include built-in video games – and most are on the market illegally.

Although tobacco companies claim to be responding to adult tobacco users’ demand for variety, flavored tobacco products play a key role in enticing kids to a lifetime of addiction. The facts are clear:

• Nearly 90% of youth who have used tobacco started with a flavored product.
• 1 in 10 high school students now use e-cigarettes, and the vast majority of them say flavors are the reason they do it.
• Half of high school smokers use menthol cigarettes, which are easier for kids to start using and harder for smokers to quit.
• Cigars – which come in hundreds of sweet flavors – are now the second most popular tobacco product among high schoolers.

This is undermining the nation’s progress in reducing youth tobacco use.

Prohibiting all flavored tobacco products is one of the most important steps we can take to get this problem under control. The evidence shows that if any flavored products are left on the market, kids will simply switch to them.

I urge you to take a stand against all flavored tobacco products and do your part to help create the first tobacco-free generation.

Sincerely,
[YOUR NAME]