Objective 1: Reduce Tobacco-Related Disparities
Download Objective 1 (PDF).
Key Themes
- The tobacco industry and its deadly products impact communities at different rates.
- Populations experiencing patterns of bias and exclusion tend to be the most impacted by tobacco.
- Health equity requires greater focus on tobacco prevention and cessation in these priority populations.ā
California has made great progress in reducing the overall rate of tobacco use, but alarming disparities based on demographic, socioeconomic, and geographic differences remain.2 Among California adults in 2021ā2022, the overall current tobacco use rate was 11.4%, but rates were considerably higher in certain subgroups, as shown in Figure 2.
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āāāā*FPL = federal poverty level
For decades, the tobacco industry has targeted historically marginalized communities using manipulative marketing tactics such as providing free or discounted products and using themes or models that reflect community values.3ā6 The industryās tactics also include masquerading as supporters of social justice, civil rights, and cultural issues with the goal of interfering with policy, selling more products, and profiting from the communities they target.1,7 This has led to a situation in which many of Californiaās priority populations not only suffer from higher rates of tobacco use, but also greater exposure to secondhand smoke at work and home, and higher rates of tobacco-related death and disease than the general population.2,8,9 To reverse the damage that the tobacco industry has inflicted on many of Californiaās communities, it is critical to identify tobacco-related disparities experienced by these communities and counter the industryās influence on them.