U.S. Initiatives
Legislation
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On March 27, 2019, International Youth Tobacco Control member representatives were invited to Sacramento Capitol press conference and hearing to advocate tobacco prevention bills SB 38 and SB 39 with Senator Jerry Hill and Anthony Portantino, Assemblyman Kevin McCarty and Jim Wood, and Stanford Professor Bonnie Helpern-Felsher. SB 38 prohibits selling flavored tobacco products, and SB 39 requires distributors to obtain a signature from a person 21 years or older before selling a tobacco product. Both bills were successfully passed, impacting 3.5 millions adolescents in California.
Education
On July 7-8, 2018, IYTC held educational activities with 36 elementary students from China, a country without regulation or education about the harms of smoking. The activities included interactive lessons about the statistical harms, visual presentations on the ingredients of a cigarette, short lectures, pledges, and pre- and post-activity thoughts about smoking.
Onscreen Smoking
The Walt Disney Company's purchase of 140 movies from FOX that contain smoking scenes could reverse its 2015 no smoking movie policy. Partnering with Jono Polansky of University of California, San Francisco, we wrote letters to Disney CEO Mr. Robert Iger to place restrictions on the newly purchased movies.
"I would have never learned about the harms of smoking if it wasn't for this activity. I hereby pledge to never smoke, and I will go home and educate my dad, who's a heavy smoker,
to quit."
Shuanghe Yu, Jiamusi Sixth Primary School