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As the year comes to a close, Tobacco Stops With Me, a program of TSET, looks back on highlights from 2023 and discusses some of the biggest tobacco issues facing Oklahoma in 2024.
Among the highlights in 2023, adult smoking rates in Oklahoma reached an all-time low of 15.6%. This is down from 26.1% in 2011. Corrective statements were also posted in retailers nationwide, educating the public of Big Tobacco's lies.
There is still work to do, especially in protecting our youth from the harms of nicotine and tobacco. In Oklahoma, vaping usage increased from 5% to 6.6% among preteens and remains high among teens at 21.7%.
It is also still legal to smoke in cars with children present. Exposure to secondhand smoke damages children's lungs and increases the likelihood they will become a smoker as an adult.
In November, the FDA issued warning letters to seven online retailers for selling vapes packaged to appeal to youth and evade detection from the adults in their lives.
 The products appeared to be designed to appeal to young children, imitating things like milk cartons, sippy cups and toys.
 This is especially troubling as vape usage is trending younger. While e-cigarette usage has declined among high school students, it is rising among middle schoolers, according to the 2023 National Youth Tobacco Survey. E-cigarettes remain the most popular tobacco product for youth, according to the survey, with approximately 2.1 million young people reported vaping in 2023.
November's round of warning letters were only the latest effort by the FDA to crack down on the tobacco industry's blatant targeting of youth. In August, the FDA sent out letters to 15 retailers selling vapes that featured characters from children's media including SpongeBob Square Pants and Mario brothers.
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Perspective: Julie Bisbee in the Journal Record
It’s been said that your ZIP code is a better predictor of health and longevity than your genetic code. Where you live, work, learn and play have a profound impact on quality of life. Learn how several Oklahoma towns are developing innovative ways to create healthier communities.
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The TSET Healthy Living Podcast is now every other month. On the months without a new release, we invite you to revisit earlier episodes you may have missed.
Such as Episode 36, where we explored a new TSET campaign that exposes how the tobacco industry uses “shapeshifting” marketing to make tobacco and vape products seem appealing to a wide variety of people.
Guests include TSET Health Communication Manager Chase Harvick, Donald Richardson of Guiding Right and high school students Carter Goldston and Alexis Wenthold.
"[Vape commercials] remind me of a candy commercial," said Goldston. "Have you seen the Skittles commercials? It's like Taste The Rainbow, and then all these vape products and have all these flavors. And it's like, "Why don't you try this flavor, this flavor, this flavor? And you can find which one is best for you."
Available on TSET's website and everywhere podcasts are listened to: Spotify, TuneIn, Stitcher, PodBean, Google Podcasts and Apple Podcasts.
TSET is staffed by a dedicated and passionate group of people. This month, we would like to introduce Susan Yingling.
Susan Yingling is the Executive Assistant and Board Secretary at TSET. Before joining TSET, she worked as a legal assistant for the Litigation Division of the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office. Prior to that, she served as an executive assistant for several executive directors in the nonprofit, government, legal, and private sector.
Yingling also serves as an adjunct English composition instructor at several community colleges. She has a Master of Liberal Arts in Writing from Oklahoma City University.
Read about the rest of the team HERE.
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