The tobacco industry has a long history of shamelessly protecting its profits at the expense of people’s lives, most recently by trying to overhaul its image with tactics exposed in the Truth Initiative report “Spinning a New Tobacco Industry.” So it should be no surprise that while Americans die from a devastating pandemic and the country is galvanized by racial injustice, tobacco and vaping companies are exploiting the public health and social justice crises, and the vulnerable communities most impacted by them, to benefit their bank accounts.
Targeting vulnerable groups – especially young people, African Americans and low-income populations – to recruit as “replacement smokers” for the more than 1,300 who die each day from tobacco use has long been central to the tobacco industry playbook. And now newer vaping companies are clearly copying it as they blatantly target young people during a pandemic that impacts lung health.
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