New York State Department of Health Promotes CDC's Tips From Former Smokers Campaign

People Featured in Campaign, Including New Yorkers, Share Stories about How Cigarette Smoking Negatively Impacted Their Lives and Encourage People to Quit Smoking

Campaign Underscores the Danger of Menthol Cigarettes

ALBANY, N.Y. (March 20, 2024) – The New York State Department of Health is promoting Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Tips From Former Smokers (Tips) campaign to highlight the devastating health impact continued commercial tobacco use causes and encourage people to quit smoking. This year, seven new people, including one from New York, are featured in the ads sharing their stories about how cigarette smoking and smoking-related diseases have negatively impacted their lives.

"Smoking causes long-term disease and disability, and premature death," State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said. "The CDC's Tips From Former Smokers campaign is an innovative project that shows how smoking can negatively impact someone's life but also highlights the strength of individuals who decide to quit. The State Health Department and the CDC remain committed to providing supportive resources to individuals that help them stop smoking and improve their overall quality of life."

Tips tells the real stories of more than 45 people from different backgrounds who have been impacted by the serious long-term negative health effects of smoking and secondhand smoke exposure. The 2024 ads feature seven new people including one from Brooklyn, N.Y.

• Noel S. smoked menthol cigarettes for more than 20 years. He suffered a smoking-related heart attack at age 36. Noel quit smoking so he could be around to watch his younger family members grow up.

Tips uses multi-media platforms to increase the reach of quit smoking messages. Tips ads are running nationally on broadcast and cable TV, and digital and social media channels. Ads have also been placed to reach specific audiences, including people who are African American, American Indian, Alaska Native, Hispanic/Latino, Asian, Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islanders, LGBTQ+, and deaf or hard-of-hearing.

Many of this year's new ads include messaging about the harms of menthol cigarettes, which contribute to tobacco-related health disparities. Menthol in cigarettes makes it easier to start smoking and harder to quit.

For more than 60 years, the tobacco industry has specifically targeted Black communities with menthol tobacco product marketing and promotions. As a result, in New York State, menthol cigarettes are used by over half of all adult smokers (52 percent), while 86 percent of Black and 72 percent of Hispanic smokers use menthol cigarettes. Smoking-related illnesses are the number one cause of death in the African American community, surpassing all other causes of death, including AIDS, homicide, diabetes, and accidents.

In 2023, Governor Kathy Hochul proposed legislation to address this health inequity by ending the sale of all flavored tobacco products including menthol cigarettes.

The Department envisions a tobacco-free and vape-free society for all New Yorkers.

Since 2000, the State's Tobacco Control Program has implemented evidence-based programming to reduce illness, disability, and death related to commercial tobacco use and secondhand smoke exposure, and to alleviate social and economic inequities caused by tobacco use. The program uses an evidence-based, policy-driven, and population-level approach to tobacco control and prevention with a commitment to promote health equity among populations disproportionately impacted by tobacco marketing and use.

The Tobacco Control Program's efforts and actions have contributed to record-low youth and adult smoking rates in New York State.

New Yorkers who want help to quit smoking or vaping, including counseling and medication, can talk to a health care provider or contact the New York State Smokers' Quitline. The New York State Smokers' Quitline provides free, confidential services, including information, tools, quit coaching, support in both English and Spanish, and free Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT), such as patches and gum. Services are available by calling 1-866 NY-QUITS (1-866-697-8487), texting (716) 309-4688, or visiting www.nysmokefree.com for information, to chatting online with a Quit Coach or signing up for Learn2QuitNY, a six-week, step-by-step text messaging program to build the skills needed to quit any tobacco product.

Information about the Department's Tobacco Control Program is available here.

Learn more about how to help fight the injustice of menthol-flavored tobacco products on the program's It's Not Just campaign website and the Tobacco Free NYS website.

The campaign advertisement that focuses on the impact of menthol on the Black community can be viewed here.