LAKEWOOD, OH — At a local CVS pharmacy today, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) joined CVS MinuteClinic Chief Medical Officer, Nancy Gagliano, M.D., to outline the company’s landmark announcement that it will become the first national pharmacy to stop selling cigarettes, and instead, will invest in smoking cessation efforts. CVS/Caremark’s decision comes on the heels of a resolution Brown introduced recognizing the 50th anniversary of the first Surgeon General (SG) report linking smoking tobacco with lung cancer and heart disease. With tobacco use still the leading cause of preventable and premature disease, disability, and death in the United States, Brown called for other companies to follow CVS’ example and take similar efforts that would help save lives.     

“CVS’ announcement is excellent news for the health of Americans across the country,” Brown said. “While we’ve made progress in the last half century, tobacco use is still the leading cause of preventable death in the world. Here is a tangible corporate decision that can significantly slow the insidious creep of addiction, lung cancer, coronary disease, and respiratory harm caused by tobacco and nicotine. In order to continue this progress and save lives, other pharmacy retailers need to take responsibility for the health of their customers and stop the sale of tobacco products.”

Last week CVS, the country’s largest drugstore chain in overall sales, announced that it would stop selling cigarettes at its 7,600 locations by October 2014 and begin a national campaign to help millions of Americans quit smoking. With representatives in attendance from the American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, and American Lung Association, Brown urged other pharmacies to demonstrate their commitment to the health and wellness of their clients and stop the sale of tobacco products. Brown repeated his call in letters today to WalgreensRite Aid, and the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, urging them to follow CVS’ lead, a message he also conveyed during an in-person meeting with Walgreens executives last week.

Gagliano detailed CVS’ new campaign, to be launched this spring, which is expected to include information, treatment, and online resources regarding smoking cessation at CVS pharmacies and MinuteClinics. All CVS pharmacy and MinuteClinic locations will feature this program along with other programs for CVS benefit plan members. About seven in ten smokers admit a desire to quit, with approximately half attempting to do so every year. Joining Brown and Gagliano to discuss smoking cessation efforts was Dr. Michael Roizen, Chief Wellness Officer of the Cleveland Clinic; as well as Cleveland area residents, Melisa Renton and Shanisha Collins, both of whom are currently working to quit smoking through a CVS pharmacy cessation program. 

The 1964 SG report paved the way for a series of important public health initiatives which have helped reduce the prevalence of smoking among American adults from 42 percent in 1965, to 18 percent in 2012. Ohio’s rate of smoking, however, has not declined at the same rate as the national average. In 2012, 23.3 percent of Ohioans smoked, a rate 5.4 percent lower than when data was first collected in 1984. And when funding for tobacco control efforts was funneled to cover other state budget needs in late 2007, the result was an increase in smoking rates between 2008 and 2010. Further, the newest SG report offers an even dimmer assessment of the effects of tobacco use, linking smoking to many other diseases, such as diabetes, liver cancer, and colorectal cancer.

According to the Ohio Department of Public Health:

  • One in every five Ohio deaths is caused by tobacco;
  • Ohio ranks sixth in adult smoking rates;
  • 16,900 children under the age of 18 start smoking each year in Ohio;
  • Approximately 386,000 Ohioans are currently suffering from one or more chronic or acute diseases as the result of cigarette smoking;
  • The medical costs associated with tobacco use by Ohioans are approximately $4 billion per year, of which $1.3 billion is covered by the Ohio Medicaid program; and
  • Ohio residents pay what amounts to a “tobacco tax” of about $602 per household for smoking-related government expenditures annually.

For these reasons, Brown continues to fight Big Tobacco’s latest attempts to circumvent tobacco control initiatives in order to replace the 480,000 customers it loses each year to tobacco related deaths.

In letters written to the office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), Brown has expressed his concerns regarding the USTR’s Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) tobacco proposal, which does not currently recognize tobacco as a unique consumer product and which may allow tobacco companies to use trade law to subvert domestic tobacco control measures. Further, Brown has pressed the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to regulate tobacco products to the full extent of their powers, such as the use of graphic warning labels, ensuring that all tobacco products are properly taxed and controlled, and finalizing their regulatory powers over tobacco.

In 2009, Congress passed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which gave the FDA the direct authority to regulate cigarettes and smokeless tobacco. The law also gave the FDA the ability to oversee all tobacco products, like electronic cigarettes (e-cigs), pending FDA development of “deeming regulations” followed by a review by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). In a December 2013 letter, Brown urged President Obama to expedite OMB’s review of these regulations, which would allow the FDA to fight Big Tobacco’s efforts to target children and addict them to tobacco products. In a separate letter that same month, Brown urged the Federal Trade Commission (FTA) to include e-cig companies in its annual marketing report that outlines how much and where cigarette companies spend their advertising dollars; and investigate makers of e-cigs that make potentially false, misleading, or deceptive advertising claims that their product is therapeutic. Simultaneously, Brown called on nine e-cig makers to provide additional information regarding the sale, distribution, labeling, and marketing of their products to children and teens.

CVS does not sell e-cigs because it is waiting for the FDA to offer guidance on the devices. E-cigs emit water vapor instead of smoke, but use addictive nicotine and are not yet subject to federal laws that apply to traditional cigarettes. These laws include prohibiting the sale to minors, banning ads on the television and radio, and disallowing the use of fruit flavors that appeal to kids. But e-cig makers have utilized each of these tactics as well as the use of celebrity sponsors to glamorize their products. Not surprisingly, e-cig use has doubled among middle and high school children in just the last year according to a recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC study also suggests that e-cigs are a gateway to traditional smoking, citing that more than 76 percent of children who used e-cigs also smoked conventional cigarettes within 30 days. 

Applauding Brown’s and CVS’ efforts are:

John R. Seffrin, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of the American Cancer Society, who said: “We know that policies that restrict access to tobacco products, reduce exposure to tobacco advertising, and limit the places that people smoke have a direct effect on reduced smoking rates, especially among youth. And that’s what makes this move so significant: community pharmacists play a key role in health and wellness and CVS Caremark has taken a bold step to demonstrate its commitment to healthy lifestyles and the prevention of disease.”

Lindsay Silverstein, Vice President and Executive Director for the Cleveland Chapter of the American Heart Association, who said: “The decision by CVS Caremark is an important step forward in reducing access to these deadly products, and we applaud their courage to put public health above profits.”

Shelly Kiser, Director of Advocacy for the American Lung Association in Ohio, who said: “The American Lung Association in Ohio is pleased to join Senator Brown in commending CVS Caremark for its bold decision to remove tobacco products from its nationwide locations. Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S. and is the major cause of lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The Lung Association hopes more retailers will act and reduce access to tobacco.”

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