August 2023

According to the 2021 VT YRBS, 20% of Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) youth used any tobacco product, including cigarettes, vaping, cigars, or smokeless tobacco, in the past 30 days and use at a significantly higher rate than their white, non-Hispanic peers.  In 2017, 20% of BIPOC youth used any tobacco product, with the rate increasing to 28% in 2019.  Caution should be used when comparing the 2021 rate to prior years due to changes in survey methodology.  The Vermont Tobacco Program has set a target to reduce use to 19%.

The tobacco industry has historically targeted and marketed to communities of color through attempts at maintaining a positive image by supporting cultural events and making contributions to minority higher education institutions, elected officials, civic and community organizations, and scholarship programs. As the Truth Initiative calls out, there are up to ten times more (10X) tobacco product ads in communities of color than in white neighborhoods.

The Vermont Tobacco Program currently implements population level approaches aimed at reducing the toll of tobacco use among youth. The program supports Vermont Kids Against Tobacco (VKAT) and Our Voices Exposed (OVX) in school around the state. Both these programs seek to empower youth through focusing on the whole-person health impacts of commercial tobacco use and education on the industry's web of influence. This effort is in collaboration with the Agency of Education and the Vermont Cooperative for Practice Improvement & Innovation. The Vermont Tobacco Control program also supports the Windham County Vermont NAACP Community Based Disparities Project in their work to reduce tobacco use among priority populations, specifically Black, Indigenous and people of color, and tailor strategies for eliminating disparities in their county.

With the State Health Improvement Plan working towards health equity, it is important to ensure that strategies implemented for the program will contribute to reducing and eliminating the health disparities experienced by BIPOC youth.

• Community Grantees: Tobacco-funded grantees create yearly work plans with population level approaches aimed at reducing the toll of tobacco use and the impact of tobacco advertising and marketing on youth.
• Youth Groups: Our Voices Xposed (OVX) and Vermont Kids Against Tobacco (VKAT) are based on the Positive Youth Development framework that recognizes the individual strengths of Vermont youth and provides supports to prepare young leaders. Together, youth work to educate their school peers, community members and local and state decision makers on the manipulative and deceptive marketing tactics tobacco and vape companies use to target youth.
• Local Decision Makers: Select boards, boards of trustees, town officers, and town planners have the authority to enact, incorporate or include best practices and implement policies.
• Offices of Local Health: Provide health services and promote wellness for all Vermonters.
• Residents: Tobacco policy progress benefits from the participation of concerned residents who can help create the understanding, support and movement for protective policies. Often policy advancement is aided when there is a groundswell of support and demand from local residents. Community grantees educate residents and decision makers to create demand for change.
• NAACP Windham County: helps to reach the BIPOC community and reduces community health disparities related to tobacco exposure

The program will continue to implement evidence-based practices such as ban on marketing and sponsorship targeted to multicultural events, counter tobacco industry influence through point of sale strategies such as banning price promotions, content neutral advertising, promoting smoke-free and clean indoor air laws to protect everyone from secondhand smoke, and providing cessation services.

The program will create a workplan with stakeholders for implementation starting July 1, 2020 incorporating best practices as identified by national organizations including the Truth Initiative and other entities which work with vulnerable populations. Selected strategies include:

1. Create and share a data brief in 2020 share data to increase understanding of the differences of tobacco use among sub-groups of adolescent youth of color (e.g., African American youth versus Hispanic youth).
2. Develop one or more partnerships with multicultural youth organizations by July 2020.
3. Host and promote smoke-free events in communities serving adolescents of color.
4. Involve youth in the development of social media campaigns and messaging.
5. Seek input into evaluation of selected services and/or policies to improve programming.

The Youth Risk Behavior Survey is administered every other year.

Any tobacco product use is defined as using at least one of the following tobacco products on one or more of the past 30 days: cigarettes; electronic vapor products; chewing tobacco, snuff, dip, snus, or dissolvable tobacco products; or cigars, cigarillos, or little cigars. Electronic vapor products were added to the high school survey in 2015. Adolescents of color are defined as those who identified as American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, Black/African American, Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander, and/or Hispanic.

The Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) is a national program funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and measures the prevalence of behaviors that contribute to the leading causes of death, disease, and injury among youth. Vermont YRBS is administered every other year (odd years) and surveys over 30,000 students during each administration. Weighted data are compiled to generate a representative state sample. In 2019, the YRBS will be administered electronically, prior to this it was a paper survey. Please see the YRBS webpage for more information about this data source.