Tobacco Prevention and Control

Mecklenburg County's Tobacco Prevention and Control team promotes culturally appropriate and best practice strategies to reduce deaths and health problems due to tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke or e-cigarette aerosols. All residents in our community deserve a healthy home, workplace and community where tobacco use is no longer the social norm.

A commitment to health equity involves understanding health disparities related to tobacco and factors that cause these disparities. Several factors connect tobacco with higher levels of disease, disability, and death in different population groups. For example:

• The tobacco industry uses tailored marketing and advertising to target some groups and communities.
• Tobacco companies use flavors to entice specific groups to try their harmful products.
• The pressures of discrimination, poverty, and other social conditions can increase commercial tobacco use and make health problems worse.
• Population groups need more protections from exposure to secondhand smoke.
• Some groups encounter barriers to health care and treatment for tobacco use and dependence.

FromThe Centers for Disease Control, Smoking and Tobacco Use

* Health disparities are preventable differences in the burden of disease, injury, violence, or in opportunities to achieve optimal health experienced by socially disadvantaged racial, ethnic, and other population groups, and communities.                                                      

Populations that warrant special attention for advancing health equity, due to tobacco use and industry targeting, include:

• African Americans
  
  •  Saving Black Lives  Black Lives, Black Lungs
• American Indians or Alaska Natives
• Armed services members and military veterans
• Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, or Pacific Islanders
• Hispanics and Latinos
• Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, (LGBTQ+) individuals 
• People of lower socioeconomic status (SES) 
• People with mental health and/or substance use disorders (MH/SUD)
• Youth and Young Adults

To learn more about how to talk about tobacco impacts from a health equity perspective, visit Framing Tobacco Disparities.

Fast Facts and Fact Sheets on Tobacco Use