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Saint Paul Residents Respond: Would You Ever Allow Your Children to Smoke Cigarettes?

Although there has been tremendous progress in reducing smoking rates, commercial tobacco use is still the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 deaths per year, including more than 41,000 deaths resulting from secondhand smoke exposure.  Approximately 28.3 million adults smoke cigarettes, and about 2.8 million middle and high school students use at least one tobacco product, including e-cigarettes, in the U.S.

The Association of Nonsmokers Minnesota (ANSR) has been proactively working to address how the      tobacco industry targets youth, Black, Indigenous and communities of color, members of the LGBTQ+ communities, and create greater awareness of the harms of all nicotine products. ANSR has been actively involved in shaping local and statewide tobacco policy. Over the last few years, they helped Minneapolis and Saint Paul restrict the sales of menthol and flavored commercial tobacco, helped Edina become the first  city in Minnesota to raise the tobacco sales age to 21 and most recently passed a an ordinance to prohibit the redemption of coupons for all commercial tobacco products in Saint Paul.      Edina’s leadership in passing a commercial tobacco 21 policy created a ripple effect for cities and counties across the state and eventually state law in 2020.

In the summer of 2023, ANSR interns De’Marco Walton and Gracyn Delaune assisted in creating a short film for the Nicotine-Free Generation. As part of this project, De’Marco Walton , a student at the University of Minnesota, conducted interviews with over 200 individuals from all seven wards of Saint Paul to better understand attitudes towards smoking and when people would allow their children to start smoking.

Responses on when individuals would allow their children to start smoking varied, ranging from a resolute ‘never’ to more lenient approaches. Walton found that individuals from higher socioeconomic backgrounds were more likely to adamantly oppose their children’s involvement with commercial tobacco products. In addition, all Black individuals interviewed were more likely to say that they would never allow their children to smoke. In all cases, opposition to smoking coincided with strong awareness of the health risks and the successful detachment of commercial tobacco products from their cultural norms.

Black respondents cited health concerns and brought up personal experiences with smoking. “The tobacco industry has targeted low-income and Black communities for generations,” said De’Marco Walton. “In our findings while conducting the interviews, every Black person said they would never want their child to use tobacco products. Many people referenced losing family members due to the adverse effects of commercial tobacco products and were determined to protect their younger family members from such harm.”

Tobacco companies continue to aggressively target low-income people, youth, Black, Indigenous and communities of color, and LGBTQ+ communities in Minnesota. “From the filming of the video that I attended with De’Marco, we noticed that Black residents of Saint Paul always told us that they would never want their children to start smoking and a majority of them told us specific stories of how they were targeted by the industry and worked extremely hard to quit, or how they lost people important to them as a result of smoking-related illnesses”, said Gracyn Delaune. “We believed this phenomenon to be the direct result of the tobacco industry targeting Black Americans, as they were forced to deal with the brunt of health issues that came from the use of cigarettes.”

Both De’Marco Walton and Gracyn Delaune have personally experienced the predatory targeting tactics of the tobacco industry, which motivated them to educate others and work to address the deadly impacts of smoking. “I have seen family members face the health consequences of smoking through chronic and terminal illnesses. As a young person who was in middle and high school during the height of Juul’s popularity, I have also seen the marketing and tactics that were used to try and entice young people into trying and using commercial tobacco products,” said Gracyn Delaune.

The anecdotal findings by Walton demonstrate the success of health education and awareness campaigns in reducing the use of commercial tobacco products and the importance of local policy change to limit the use of commercial tobacco and nicotine, particularly in communities who experience the greatest health inequities. “By dispelling misconceptions and informing individuals about the harmful effects of smoking, we can hope to promote healthier choices and prevent commercial tobacco use among future generations,” said Walton.

ANSR and advocate partners hope to share the video created by De’Marco and Gracyn with Saint Paul residents, to continue the discussion on the harms of commercial tobacco and the lifetime of addiction caused by youth being targeted by the tobacco industry. These efforts aim to support the next big initiative of passing a Nicotine-Free Generation ordinance in Saint Paul.