How can PM USA, a tobacco company, be committed to preventing kids from using tobacco products? While we acknowledge that some people may think it is contradictory for a tobacco company to help prevent anyone from using its products, we do not see a contradiction. There are very good reasons why we support preventing kids from smoking or using any tobacco products.
First and foremost, we believe kids should not use tobacco. Cigarette smoking is addictive and causes serious disease. And, in every state, it is against the law to sell tobacco products to anyone under the age of 18; several states it's 19 or older. Furthermore, we believe the American public expects tobacco companies to help prevent kids from smoking or using any tobacco products. As the largest tobacco manufacturer in the U.S., we believe we should take a lead in helping reduce underage tobacco use.
Our company supported youth smoking prevention for many years, and we intensified our efforts in the 1990s. Early in that decade, youth smoking rates were increasing
.1 Health groups and society became increasingly concerned with this trend. As a result, we reassessed our role and decided to do more.
In 1995, we announced the Action Against Access program, and became a founding member and major sponsor of the Coalition for Responsible Tobacco Retailing and its
We Card program. In 1998, we voluntarily established our Youth Smoking Prevention (YSP) department. Our YSP department has applied significant resources to grant-making to youth-development organizations, producing tools and resources to help parents talk to their kids about not smoking, supporting youth access prevention initiatives to help keep cigarettes and other tobacco products out of kids' hands and youth smoking prevention advertising. PM USA is guided by internal and external research to support the development of YSP department initiatives and programs. These initiatives are also complemented by a number of company-wide efforts.
Since 1997, youth smoking rates have declined dramatically. While we are encouraged by the decline, youth smoking remains a serious issue. To continue to lower the rates of youth tobacco use, a great deal needs to be done by many people. That's why we are committed to working with youth-serving organizations, parents, the public health community, policy makers, retailers, researchers, educators and others in this effort.
We invite you to browse this site to learn more about the
Youth Smoking Prevention department and the work we do.
