From left are Falconer Central Schoo;l Reality Check members Brittney McElwain, Haley Card, Josh Weed and Spencer Bautista.

FALCONER — Students from Falconer Central School’s Reality Check program recently marked the Great American Smokeout by using cups.

Specifically, the students placed the cups the school’s fence to promote a single message: “Smoking/Vaping Nicotine Is Addictive.” The messaging coincides with the group’s efforts in educating the community on the dangers of e-cigarettes.

E-cigarette use among teens is on the rise, creating an emerging public health concern. Since New York state health officials began tracking e-cigarette use in 2014, use by high school students increased from 10.5 percent to 27.4 percent in 2018. New national data shows that vaping among high schoolers jumped 78% from last year, with middle school vaping increasing by 48 percent.

While smoking among youth is declining, Chautauqua County’s rate is higher than New York state’s overall high school smoking rate is 7 percent. Tobacco control experts attribute these high rates to the fact that tobacco industry marketing deliberately targets youth.

“Tobacco marketing influences youth smoking and vaping more than peer pressure,” said Jonathan Chaffee, Reality Check Youth Coordinator at Tobacco-Free Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Allegany (TF-CCA).

According to Chaffee, 75 percent of New York youth visit a convenience store at least once a week. Chaffee also notes that the tobacco industry spends over half a million dollars a day to market their products in New York State.

“If a store sells tobacco or e-cigarettes, no matter what that person goes into buy, they are exposed to luring marketing messages,” he said.

The Falconer fence messaging comes on the cusp of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s announcement that they will curb sales of most flavored e-cigarettes so that they can only be sold in retail stores that a) already prohibit entry for people under the age of 18 or b) have a section of the store that doesn’t allow minors in. That move will essentially ban most flavored e-cig products from convenience stores and gas station.

Chaffee is encouraged by the FDA proposal noting that, “It will help protect a generation of children from getting addicted to nicotine through e-cigarettes.”

The Great American Smokeout was established in 1976 to get smokers to quit for one day and make a plan to quit for good. According to Chaffee, the students realized that vaping is becoming more popular among their peers than smoking and wanted to make this year’s focus on nicotine addiction. They chose put-in cup fence messaging because they wanted it to be bright, colorful and provocative.

Reality Check, a teen-led, adult-run program, educates the community on youth smoking and vaping, the deceptive marketing tactics of the tobacco industry, and how policies can change social norms around tobacco sales and use.

For more information, visit www.realitycheckofny.com.