On Friday March 22nd, 2019 five members from Dover Youth to Youth’s high school team headed up by freshman Elsa Rogers flew to Washington DC to meet with members of the FDA”s Center for Tobacco Products.at their White Oak Campus in Silver Springs Maryland.
Elsa Rogers along with fellow freshman students Audrey Kettlewood and Grace Bonyman and juniors Lauren Boettcher and Epping’s Faith Williamson made the trip to discuss tobacco flavorings and their popularity amongst youth and what the students were seeing in the schools.
On Friday March 22nd, 2019 five members from Dover Youth to Youth’s high school team headed up by freshman Elsa Rogers flew to Washington DC to meet with members of the FDA”s Center for Tobacco Products.at their White Oak Campus in Silver Springs Maryland.
Elsa Rogers along with fellow freshman students Audrey Kettlewood and Grace Bonyman and juniors Lauren Boettcher and Epping’s Faith Williamson made the trip to discuss tobacco flavorings and their popularity among youth and what the students were seeing in the schools.
This was one of many Listening Sessions the FDA is having to provide outside parties with an opportunity to educate the Center for Tobacco Products. Students from Dover Y2Y spoke about the popularity of these flavorings at the middle school as well as at the high school, crediting candy flavorings for the huge popularity in electronic cigarettes, chewing tobacco and cigars. The students testified to the session that without the candy flavorings students would generally not choose to use tobacco products.
As part of her testimony, Elsa Rogers reviewed the history of tobacco lies that companies have told in the past- everything from an old Viceroys advertisement that says, “As your dentist, I would recommend Viceroys” to a more modern Winston cigarette ad that shows two boxes of cigarettes in front of a bunch of football players with a caption of “Spirit of the USA” She also showed many ads that were appealing to the youth market that included the concepts of sex, athletics and music. She then reviewed current marketing techniques of electronic cigarettes to find the same youth appealing concepts.
The students then went on to discuss what they see on a daily basis at the high school level and how flavorings have taken a first row seat. Flavors such Mango, strawberry and Cotton Candy are a drift not just in the bathrooms but in classrooms, on busses and during sports, thanks to these small, easily concealed, flash drive looking devices. It was also noted that the students who were interviewed about their use of these flavored tobacco products said that they probably wouldn’t use them if they didn’t have such good flavorings.
The presentation was very well received by the listening committee and they asked many questions about the current efforts of the students.
