On August 16th and 17th in Harlem, the American Heart Association met with long time advocates, strategized with community partners, and recruited new advocates to our Heart Powered grassroots network to combat the use of menthol in New York City.
According to the data published by the city’s Community Health Profile. In Central and East Harlem, less adults report their own health as being “excellent”, “very good”, or “good”. In East Harlem, the adult smoking rate is more than double the rate of the rest of the borough.
On Saturday, Katey Aquilina, our Eastern States Grassroots Lead, met with advocates and community leaders to discuss our advocacy successes and our current local policy goals before the end of the legislative session in December. We continue to advocate for the final passage of Int. 0641 which would set nutritional standards for children’s meals sold at restaurants and Int. 1152 which would restrict the sale of menthol cigarettes.
On Sunday, we attended the 51st Annual Harlem Week celebration attended by thousands of residents. At the American Heart Association’s Heart Powered table, we registered new advocates to the grassroots network, distributed hundreds of educational materials about the harms of menthol cigarettes, engaged with neighborhood organizations representing Harlem.
Menthol-flavored tobacco is particularly lethal as it makes smoking easier to start, and harder to quit. This flavored tobacco creates a cooling effect at the back of the throat which reduces the harshness of cigarette smoke and suppresses coughing. The tobacco industry is unapologetically intentional with its targeting, which results in these disproportionately higher use rates by minority smokers.
“Smoking is a leading cause of death for New Yorkers, especially among our Black and Brown communities,” Aquilina said. “The work of our team and advocates is critical in ensuring that we don’t continue to lose some of our most vulnerable community members to this targeted offender.”
To learn more about our advocacy efforts, join the American Heart Association’s Heart Powered at American Heart Association Heart Powered | Sign up to be an advocate today!
For additional information on smoking and vaping, download the resources below: