Monthly Archives: October 2022

Below is a letter from our CEO, Lori Sontag, in support of an Editorial done by The Columbus Dispatch on the Ban to sell Flavored vaping tobacco and menthol cigarettes

Read our feature in The Columbus Dispatch!

The Breathing Association is in support of the Coalition to End Tobacco Targeting’s goal to ban the sale of all flavored tobacco and menthol cigarettes products. The Breathing Association has decades of experience as the hub of tobacco cessation and treating dependency with our Central Ohio community.

Seventy percent of those we serve are minority and all very low income. Our population is a target to buy these harmful products. We see the health effects and increased usage due to e-cigarettes in our community and support the ban of these products.

More:Angel: Big tobacco industry luring Black teens to death with candy-flavored e-cigarettes

The Tobacco Treatment Specialist program we offer to train medical professionals to treat and educate those with nicotine dependency has grown fast to meet the local needs. This comprehensive online program provides medical professionals the tools they need to provide smoking, vaping, nicotine treatment.

The epidemic with youth and young adults is setting the groundwork for a lifetime of dependency and lung health issues. While smoking cigarettes has declined in the youth population the overwhelming acceptance and trend to vape and use e-cigarettes with flavors has become an epidemic.

We are launching a new program to educate youth about the hazards of using these flavored nicotine product so they know the harms. Our new program called Kick the Nic is being piloted and we hope to expand it across Central Ohio to help youth understand and have the tools they need to kick this nicotine habit now while they are young and hopefully, we will reach youth before they begin.

The Breathing Association has been serving Central Ohio residents for over 115 years and now serves 1,500 patients per year in our Free Lung Health Clinic and in our Mobile Medical Unit, which travels to low-income Franklin County neighborhoods, relieving those living at or below the 175% Federal Poverty line of the lung health ailments and diseases that plague them through detection, diagnosis, care, and treatment.

Columbus must take action!

Lori Sontag, president and CEO, The Breathing Association