We are going back to school! We kick off Season Five today by talking to teens about tobacco pollution, smoking and e-cig use. Keshav Narang is an 18 y.o. High school senior and Finn Ceja is a 19 year old college student. They both join me today as youth advisors to the Environmental Justice in Tobacco Control Project of the Sierra Club. Their generation cares passionately about the health of their peers as well as environmental justice. To be blunt, this pod gave me hope that the kids are all right. Listen and learn!

To Do:

Flavored tobacco products are designed to hook young people like Keshav and Finn, as well as kids even younger, the age of my daughters. Fight flavored tobacco where you are- if there is a flavor ban being considered at the state and local level, get involved! For example, several Oregon counties have passed a flavor ban, and I’m hoping we will get a statewide ban passed this year. Listen to the prior podcast episodes on flavored tobacco to learn more.
Learn more by going to the Sierra Club's StopToxicTobaccoWaste.org . If you go to their policy tabs page, you can see a host of ideas on how to decrease the toll of tobacco pollution in your area
Advocate for a ban on selling cigarettes with cigarette butts. They are a plastic that don’t make cigarettes safer for the user, and they increase microplastics likely in the body of the smoker and certainly in our environment.
Consider a donation to the Sierra Club, to support the work they do in helping the environment in all ways, including keeping it free from tobacco waste.

Ep art from Alexandra Morozova on Unsplash