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They're still after our kids: Tobacco industry use of “youth smoking prevention” programs emphasizing personal responsibility to shift blame for addiction and disease to children and parents
Learning Objectives:
Describe to stakeholders the cigarette industry’s continued use of “youth smoking prevention” programs to improve the image of their industry and product and undermine tobacco control initiatives aimed at youth
Explain to attendees how to detect how industry youth prevention rhetoric invoking personal responsibility shifts the blame for addiction and disease from the tobacco companies and their products to children who smoke and their parents as a way of avoiding litigation and tighter regulation
Identify ways activists can use de-normalization efforts such as counter-marketing and civic action to eliminate these pernicious and cynical industry tactics and get them out of our schools.
Keywords: Tobacco Policy, Youth
Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have spent over a decade studying the tobacco industry's corporate malfeasance and its impact on the law and tobacco control policy. Recently my focus has been on the industry's use of corporate social responsibility rhetoric and tactics, including through the creation of "youth smoking prevention" programs, with an emphasis on personal responsibility messaging. I have published on these topics and given numerous oral and poster presentations on them at national public health conferences.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.