Tobacco News

 

Summit encourages

tobacco-free teens
By BETSY COHEN of the Missoulian

6/18/08

“Survivor” contestant Mike Skupin fired up a crowd of Montana teenagers Tuesday night to take on the battle against corporate tobacco, sharing some of the lessons he learned on the reality TV program.

Don’t give up on your dreams, even when the odds are against you; it’s the choices you make that will write your life story; and quitting is not an option if you want to achieve something, the celebrity told his audience at the University of Montana.

About 180 teenagers from around the state listened intently and cheered the advice during the opening session of the 2008 reACT Against Corporate Tobacco Teen Summit.
While the four-day conference to inform youth of tobacco companies’ efforts to target them is a serious matter, the programming is catered to its energetic audience.

And here’s a heads up, Missoula: Expect this group of young people to take their message to the streets. There’s a high likelihood of rallies, flier handouts and other efforts advocating the anti-tobacco-marketing message.

“Our main goal is to reduce the initiation rate of tobacco use by Montana teens,” said Erin Kintop, youth empowerment coordinator for reACT, which operates under the Montana Tobacco Use Prevention Program. “Our goal is to empower youth to say no.”

Although it seems simple, saying no is a challenge because Big Tobacco has significant reason to attract new users, Kintop said.

Each year, the industry loses 200 million customers due to cessation efforts and death, she said.

“When that happens the industry needs to replace those consumers, and teens are considered the main replacement smokers,” Kintop said.

How are these new users recruited? The industry continues to find ways, she said - for example, by creating products such as candy-flavored tobacco.

Each year, tobacco companies spend $48.1 million on marketing their products in Montana alone, and roughly 19 percent of high school students in the state use tobacco, Kintop said.

The summit is tightly scheduled with lectures, art sessions, dance parties, activism and barbecues. It’s like camp, Kintop said, but with a really important purpose.

On Friday, the teens will hear from and hang out with another celebrity - Yes Duffy, a skateboarder, graffiti muralist, break-dancer and activist who appeared on MTV’s “Road Rules.”

The ultimate goal of the summit, Kintop said, is that the young participants go back to their communities and schools, share what they’ve learned and take it to the next level.

A quick survey of the teens showed that hope is within reason.

“I came here to learn what I can do,” said Auva Speiser, 14, of Missoula. “Some of my family has gotten cancer from tobacco, and I don’t really want that to happen anymore.”

Madison Gondeiro didn’t mince words when she explained why she is using part of her summer vacation to battle corporate tobacco.

“I’m really against tobacco,” said the 14-year-old from Vaughn. “I don’t like it at all, and I think it’s altogether bad for the nation and shouldn’t be allowed except for spiritual ceremonies in the Native American culture.

“What better way to spend my time than to be fighting for the youth and the safety of the world.”

To learn more about reACT, go to www.reactmt.com.

 

 

Tobacco whistleblower says Montana can do more

By AMANDA RICKER Bozeman Chronicle Staff Writer

5/8/08

Jeffrey Wigand, whose exposure of tobacco company practices inspired the movie “The Insider,” cited consumer rights laws Wednesday when asked about the challenges that remain for smoke-free campaigns.

“Does it tell you on the side of a pack of cigarettes what's in them?” he asked. “The consumer has the right to know exactly what's in the product. There's a lot of products out there now that they claim are reduced risk.”

Following Russell Crowe's portrayal of Wigand in the 2000 blockbuster, Wigand has spearheaded a campaign in Canada that put graphic warning pictures on all cigarette packs, doubled the price of cigarettes and banned most tobacco advertising there.

On Wednesday, Wigand shared his prevention ideas with about 170 professionals from across Montana. He served as the keynote speaker for the Montana Tobacco Use Prevention Program's annual statewide conference, a two-day event that continues today at the Hilton Garden Inn in Bozeman.

Wigand is the former vice president for research and development at Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. His disclosure of tobacco executives' deception and lies under oath to Congress brought death threats to his children. His interview with CBS's 60 Minutes was initially censored by the broadcast station for fear of reprisal by tobacco companies.

“He was hired to create a safe cigarette,” said Lily Tuholske, an organizer of the state conference. “But once they figured out that meant they would have to admit that cigarettes weren't safe, all of his research was suppressed.”

Each year, 1,500 Montanans die because of tobacco and at least 200 of those are non-users who die because of exposure to secondhand smoke, according to the Montana Department of Health and Human Safety.

Montana's annual tobacco prevention conference is funded in part by money the state received from the 1998 landmark settlement Wigand's testimony helped win against tobacco companies. The lawsuit awarded states $246 billion over 25 years to recover money spent on healthcare for smokers.

But, Wigand said, rather than using the money from the lawsuit for tobacco prevention, states have squandered much of it on potholes and other budget items.

In Montana, 32 percent of state tobacco-use revenue, or about $9.5 million, is earmarked for the Montana Tobacco Use Prevention Program, said Linda Lee, section manager for the program. That percentage was determined by a public vote.

But Wigand said the $9.5 million isn't enough.

That figure is the low end of what the Center for Disease Control recommends each state spend on tobacco prevention. The tobacco industry spends an estimated $41.8 million on marketing in Montana each year, Wigand said, citing a Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids statistic.

“Who do you think is going to win?” Wigand asked. “Big Tobacco.”

Nineteen percent of adults and 20 percent of high-school students in Montana smoke, according to a 2007 American Cancer Society report. Smoking costs the state about $493 million dollars a year.

Montana had the 11th highest cigarette tax in the nation in 2007 at $1.70 per pack.

Still, Wigand suggested that Montana at least tax the price of cigarettes by an additional one dollar a pack. He said cigarettes fall under the definition of an “instrument of murder” under criminal law. If he had not shared the information he had about tobacco companies, he would have been guilty of “bystanderism.”

In October 2009, all bars and casinos in Montana will go smoke-free. They will join the restaurants, public places and workplaces that have already prohibited smoking since the state Legislature passed the Clean Indoor Air Act in 2005.

Among the Montana program's services are the state tobacco quit line, 1-800-QUIT-NOW, and free or reduced-cost cessation tools such as the nicotine patch and prescription medicines. The group also operates reACT, a youth smoking prevention initiative.

 

 

 

Spitting image

Cancer victim warns students about hazards of chewing tobacco

By Kristi Albertson

The Daily Interlake

3/2/08

 

At 16, Gruen Von Behrens seemed to have the perfect life.

 

He was an all-star baseball player who expected a position on the college team of his choice. He was a nice-looking boy who never had any trouble finding a date for Saturday night. He was one of the most popular students at his small-town Illinois high school.

 

But Von Behrens also had a small white spot the size of a pencil tip on the side of his tongue.

 

At first he wasn't worried; he'd become used to canker sores in the three years he'd been using spit tobacco. This sore, however, stubbornly refused to go away and steadily grew.

 

In nine months, it had split his tongue in half.

 

Von Behrens' mother wondered why he slurred his speech and drooled. She thought his wisdom teeth were the problem, but Von Behrens knew the truth.

 

His addiction had given him cancer.

 

Now 30, Von Behrens travels the country, warning people of the dangers of tobacco. He is missing half his face, half his tongue and all of his teeth.

 

“This is the face of tobacco,” he told Kalispell seventh-graders on Thursday.

 

Von Behrens toured Montana last week in conjunction with the Montana Tobacco Use Prevention Program's monthlong focus on reducing spit-tobacco addiction. He addressed students at Kalispell Middle School , Columbia Falls High School , and Whitefish Middle School .

 

SPIT-TOBACCO use is much higher in Montana than the national average. Twelve percent of Montana men use spit tobacco, versus 8 percent nationwide. Nearly a quarter of the state's high-school boys use spit tobacco.

 

Most people begin experimenting with tobacco between the ages of 12 to 14, Von Behrens said. He was 13 when a buddy offered him a dip on a camping trip.

 

“I wasn't thinking about the longterm effects,” he said. At that age, “I thought about baseball, food, and women – usually in that order.”

 

It only took one pinch to hook Von Behrens. He like the way it tasted and the way it made him feel. The frequent canker sores were a minor annoyance – until one appeared halfway through his junior year of high school and refused to go away.

 

He didn't tell anyone about it. Even when his mother started worrying about his difficulty speaking and eating, Von Behrens kept his secret.

 

He knew his baseball coach would kick him off the team if he found out Von Behrens was using tobacco, which would destroy his plans to play college baseball. He knew doctors would remove half his tongue, a terrifying thought for someone who had never had so much as a cavity.

 

More than anything, he didn't want to hurt his mother.

 

“She was like my best friend,” he said. “The thought of telling that woman that I was sick because of the choice I made to put that crap in my lip…

 

“I wasn't man enough to do that.”

 

LUCKILY , mothers have a way of seeing through their children's charades. One day, Von Behrens' mother told him they were going shopping, then drove past the mall to a doctor's office instead. She'd made an appointment to get his wisdom teeth pulled.

 

The doctor was holding up the mask to put Von Behrens under for the procedure when the teenager stopped him.

 

“Doc, this isn't my teeth,” Von Behrens told him. “I think I've got cancer.”

 

After one glance at his tongue, the doctor agreed. “Until that day, I'd never seen my mother cry like that,” Von Behrens said. “It ripped her heart out.”

 

Six days later, he underwent a 13-hour operation. Surgeons removed half his tongue and cut into his neck to make sure the cancer hadn't spread to his lymph nodes.

 

It was the first of 34 surgeries and hundreds of treatments. All were painful, none more so than eight weeks of radiation. He lost 60 pounds because it hurt too much to eat, and the acid in soda and ketchup burned unbearably for a year afterward.

 

Less than two years after radiation, all of Von Behrens' teeth rotted. The treatment had killed the cancer, but it also had destroyed his skin, bones, and teeth. At 19, Von Behrens started wearing dentures.

 

“I went from the person people looked up to, to the person people looked at,” he said.

 

FIVE YEARS ago, he went through another marathon operation. Surgeons removed his jaw bone and replaced it with part of one of his lower-leg bones. They attached skin and tissue from his right thigh over the new jaw and neck; then they patched his thigh with skin from every part of his legs that hadn't been cut into.

 

It was a 20-hour procedure, and the pain he endured while healing was excruciating.

 

To date, Von Behrens has racked up somewhere between $2.5 million and $3 million in medical expenses. He currently is waiting for another reconstructive surgery, which doctors have told him will erase all evidence of his long ordeal.

 

Until then, he will deal with the stares, the whispers and the children who want to know why he looks like a monster.

 

His experience has taught him that the adage about judging a book by its cover is true. What matters, he said, is the person on the inside.

 

“The moral of the story is to be your own people. Be yourself,” he said. “The only person you have to impress is the person sitting in your seat right now.”

 

He also urged students no to take their parents for granted.

 

“Be nice to your folks,” he said. “Because when it feels like the whole world is caving in on you and you don't know where to turn, 99 times out of 100, your parents will be there for you.”

 

He hopes, however, that parents won't have to help their children endure what he has gone through.

 

When students are tempted to use tobacco, “I hope you think of me,” he said. “I hope it helps you make the right choice about tobacco.”