For decades, the tobacco industry has targeted Black communities with marketing for menthol cigarettes, with devastating impact on Black health and lives. As a result, tobacco use is the number one cause of preventable death among Black Americans, claiming 45,000 Black lives each year, and Black Americans have a harder time quitting smoking and are more likely to die from tobacco-related diseases like lung cancer, heart disease and stroke. The tobacco industry has also deliberately targeted women and girls, luring and addicting millions, and the resulting harmful consequences for women’s health occur at every stage of life. Now, for the first time ever, women who smoke are as likely as men to die from many of the diseases caused by smoking.
In this installment of our Campaign for the Culture conversation series, we will discuss the strategies, tools and policies to reverse these tobacco-related health disparities – and the work being done by advocates to put those policies in place. We'll hear from those who have always been at the forefront championing this issue: Black women. |
