Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and City Councilwoman Letitia James, joined by health activists and community leaders in the Borough Hall Rotunda today to launch the Brooklyn Smoke-Free Partnership, a new organization created to build upon New York City's success at reducing tobacco-caused death and disease by focusing on local, community-level actions in Brooklyn neighborhoods. The program is supported by a grant from the New York State Tobacco Control Program whose mission is to end New York State's needless 25,000 annual tobacco-related deaths by engaging communities in neighborhood-level change.
"One of the first initiatives I launched during my first term as borough president was ‘Butt Out Brooklyn,' to discourage our youth from smoking and to encourage their peers to do the same," said Markowitz. "Nationally, there has been great progress in bringing down smoking rates but it remains a major health issue in many Brooklyn communities. I applaud the Brooklyn Smoke-Free Partnership for bringing the fight to the borough level and advocating for changes that will protect Brooklynites from secondhand smoke, promote a tobacco-free Brooklyn and send a clear message to our kids that Brooklyn may be hot-but it's not smoking."
Recent studies have shown that 16.4 percent of Brooklyn residents - 293,000 people - currently smoke, including 6,000 kids under the age of 18. While Brooklyn's smoking rates have declined dramatically as a result of past tobacco control efforts, borough adult smoking rates are still above the citywide average of 15.8 percent.
"The Brooklyn Partnership takes the fight against Big Tobacco to where people live and work," said Councilwoman James. "We have to fight them neighborhood by neighborhood, store by store, to stop their attempt to recruit youngsters in our communities to replace their customers who keep dying from using their products."
Each year, 20,900 youngsters across New York City become new daily smokers as Big Tobacco continues its insidious advertising campaigns aimed at luring new young smokers.
"In some Brooklyn communities, smoking is the result of not only peer pressure and addiction, but an acceptable part of their culture-a rite of passage," said Deputy Borough President Yvonne Graham, a registered nurse. "We must reinforce the importance of prevention through peer-to-peer communication, reach out to our religious institutions, schools, community groups, medical facilities and other influencers to determine the root causes of smoking in respective neighborhoods and address the issue in a thoughtful, strategic manner. I look forward to working with the Brooklyn Smoke-Free Partnership in calling on Brooklynites of all ages to work together to stamp out smoking-improving their own lives and the lives of future generations."
Citywide, more than 7,500 deaths each year are attributable to smoking with an estimated 4,000 New Yorkers diagnosed annually with lung cancer. The vast majority of the lung cancer cases are directly linked to smoking. While these figures are declining due to past tobacco control interventions, too many people are still dying needlessly from tobacco use. Smoking remains linked to one in seven deaths in the city, making it the largest preventable cause of death, according to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
The fiscal burden of tobacco use is staggering, costing New York State taxpayers $900 per household to cover the costs of people made ill by smoking.
"The Brooklyn Smoke-free Partnership extends effective, evidence-based tobacco control to the neighborhood level, providing greater opportunities for diverse community engagement, said Wida Amir, Project Manager for the Brooklyn Smoke-Free Partnership. "With the support and endorsement of champions such as our Borough President Marty Markowitz, Councilwoman Leticia James, Congressman Ed Towns and fully-engaged community partners, Brooklyn will be Smoke-Free."
The Brooklyn Smoke-Free Partnership is building on successes of the citywide Coalition for a Smoke-Free City, which has campaigned for years against Big Tobacco's marketing tactics aimed at luring youngsters to take up smoking to replace the customers who die from using their products. Make the Road, a grass-roots activist group, is working as a community partner in outreach efforts to residents across the borough.
The Brooklyn Smoke-Free Partnership will be working with key partner organizations such as the American Cancer Society and Brooklyn Clear the Air - as well as grassroots groups recruited by Make the Road New York - to expand New York City's groundbreaking commitment to creating a tobacco-disease-free society. Recent New York City laws have been passed to protect people from second hand smoke exposure on hospital grounds and entryways, and banned Big Tobacco's attempt to sell flavored tobacco products which lure youngsters into smoking.
Recent proposals include a bill now before the State Legislature to protect children from second hand smoke in vehicles, and calls for smoke-free apartment buildings, parks and beaches. The bill to protect children from second hand smoke in enclosed vehicles, sponsored by Assemblywoman Nettie Mayersohn (D-Queens), is co-sponsored by Brooklyn Assembly members Hakeem Jeffries, Rhoda Jacobs,
Annette Robinson, Alec Brook-Krasny and Alan Maisel.
Specific actions planned by the Partnership include expanding efforts to end the tobacco industry's use of local stores to market to kids,, increasing the number of outdoor spaces that are smoke-free, and increasing tenants' ability to find residences that are 100 percent smoke-free.
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