Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids still spreading untrue facts

After hiding the fact that it had lobbied against a ban on menthol-flavoured cigarettes, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids is at it again. This time saying that Big Tobacco is producing gummy worm electronic cigarettes.

Diane Caruana

March 31, 2017

A week back, on the 19th of March, professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at Boston University School of Public Health, Dr. Michael Siegel, wrote that the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids had secretly lobbied against a ban on menthol-flavoured cigarettes. Sadly the campaign was successful. The result? Menthol cigarette use among adolescents increased significantly.

Gummy worm electronic cigarettes

But there was more to the story, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids said that the latest report called The Flavor Trap, reveals “use of menthol cigarettes, the only remaining flavoured cigarettes, increased significantly after the ban.” Michael Siegel added that not only did the organization fail to mention that this was a ban they had lobbied in favour of, but that it is “disingenuous” from their end to refer to menthol cigarettes as “the only remaining flavoured cigarettes”, as these were the only flavoured cigarettes available at the time this campaign took place.

“While the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids has every right to fight for a ban on e-cigarette flavorings (a policy with which I vigorously disagree), it has no business lying to and deceiving its constituents in order to promote such a ban.” Dr. Michael Siegel

Then this week, another incident of relaying untrue facts takes place. The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids sent an email to it’s constituents titled “Gummy worms,” which insinuated that tobacco companies are now producing gummy worm electronic cigarettes in order to lure kids to vaping.

“As I’ve noted previously, this is simply not true. None of the tobacco companies is producing gummy worm-flavored electronic cigarettes.” pointed out Siegel. “While the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids has every right to fight for a ban on e-cigarette flavorings (a policy with which I vigorously disagree), it has no business lying to and deceiving its constituents in order to promote such a ban.” he added.

A dishonest and unethical campaign

Professor Siegel pointed out that clearly the truth is not compelling enough, hence the Campaign feels the need to lie “making the public think that Big Tobacco has sunk to the level of trying to get kids to use gummy worm-flavored nicotine products,” in order to achieve its goal. This may serve the Campaign’s agenda, and make many concerned people support their cause, but clearly they are achieving this by being deceitful. Siegel concluded by pointing out that a “fundamentally dishonest and unethical” campaign has certainly no business advocating for public health.