Episode Transcript
[00:00:07] Speaker A: And hello there. Welcome back to another edition of just say somethings Weekly podcast. My name is Philip Clark. I'm the CEO at just say something. And I welcome you to listen to our topic today and to meet our special guest for this week's episode, Tara from Smoke Free South Carolina. Tara, welcome.
[00:00:33] Speaker B: Hi. Thanks, Bill. Thanks for having me.
[00:00:35] Speaker A: And so, smoke free South Carolina, tell us about what that is, what y'all do, and all that good stuff, of course.
[00:00:46] Speaker B: So, Smoke Free SC is a statewide nonprofit. We are an organization that promotes and amplifies the work of tobacco prevention and control stakeholders throughout the state. And basically, that just means anyone who is interested in, works in tobacco or who has a concern with tobacco use, we want to work with them to help get those issues solved, to provide education, to provide advocacy, or just to provide help with whatever their tobacco issues may be.
[00:01:16] Speaker A: Okay. And just so everybody, I'm sure they probably know, but we are partners. We do work together between just say something and smoke free South Carolina. And I know a lot of families, a lot of communities are dealing with one big issue right now. Vaping.
[00:01:37] Speaker B: Vaping, yes.
[00:01:38] Speaker A: So tell us what I know. Smoke free South Carolina, you have vape talks, which is a program. So tell us about that program.
[00:01:47] Speaker B: Yeah, so vape talk is just that. It's a talk about vaping. It started as a presentation that we would give to schools, but only to the adults in the schools. So it could be teachers, administrators, coaches, anyone who worked with youth, youth serving professionals. We started giving this presentation to them, and it talked about the importance of having conversations with students about vaping and how nicotine, which is in vapes, is dangerous for teenage bodies. So it was successful, but we started to get more requests from those adults wanting the youth to hear the presentation. So they thought the information was great, but they wanted the teenagers to hear it as well. So we revamped it, we changed it, and we made a second presentation. So it's our vape talk for youth. It's for middle school and high school students. We go to schools, we can go to youth groups, nonprofit organizations, church groups, whoever it is, any group of youth who want to hear the presentation, we can give it to them. And it's a short introductory presentation about vaping, about nicotine, and how it's bad for our bodies. So the very first goal focuses on nicotine. A lot of youth use vapes without even realizing that nicotine's inside of it. So we talk about how vapes work, and then we talk about that nicotine and how it's dangerous for teenage brain development. Your lungs and your heart, your blood pressure, all the different parts of your body that are negatively affected by nicotine. The second goal goes a little more into detail about the tobacco industry as a whole and how marketing and advertising has changed throughout history, but how now the tobacco industry and the vaping industry is targeting our young people with flashy advertisements, sweet flavors, and all these other different reasons to try to make them want to use their product, even though it's dangerous. And then the third goal focuses on why youth vape. So we look at the youth Tobacco survey that DHEC gives every other year in South Carolina, and we know why youth in South Carolina vape. The top four reasons. And we talk about those reasons, and we almost give, like, counter arguments to them. So the number one reason why youth in South Carolina vape is because a friend or a family member vapes or uses tobacco products. And we look at that reason and we talk about why. This is why some people say they vape, but we give reasons as to why you shouldn't vape based on that answer. And we do that with all of the top four for answers of why South Carolina youth vape. And then we also provide quitting resources so we don't go into the presentation assuming that no one vapes, because we know that a lot of youth are vaping right now, unfortunately. So we give encouraging remarks and we also give some cessation services on how youth can try to learn about quitting if they are interested in quitting.
[00:04:30] Speaker A: Yeah, it's funny that you mentioned that. You did the program initially for adults, and then they're like, we need you to tell our kids. We need you to, you know, part of us. Well, part of it here, just say something. We try to help parents have some of those conversations. So it's like they'd rather hear it from somebody else, or, I'm not comfortable talking to my child about that. So, you know, there's a whole host of issues. But typically, what we find being on the prevention, education and awareness side, that that's the first time that kids, when they get that hit of that nicotine in that brain, they never get that same feeling again.
[00:05:11] Speaker B: Right. They're always trying to find it again.
[00:05:13] Speaker A: That's right. That's right. And I was just at the opioid summit here in South Carolina a while back, and one of the keynote speakers showed several studies that had the pathway from vapes to opioid. And so as we're doing our work in our communities, it's given that conversation. A different twist, because there is a pathway where typically. Oh, no, they're just teens. They're just experimenting.
Yeah. Not all of them.
[00:05:50] Speaker B: Not all.
[00:05:50] Speaker A: Not all of them.
[00:05:51] Speaker B: Yes. We talk a smidge about that in the presentation. Essentially just goes to brain chemistry and all those dopamine receptors being activated by these high levels of nicotine. And your brain can essentially be changed if you continue use of nicotine, which makes you more likely to experiment with other drugs or opioids in the future.
[00:06:11] Speaker A: Yeah.
And so if someone wanted to reach out to schedule a vape talk, whether for adults or for youth, how would they go about doing that?
[00:06:24] Speaker B: So it's very simple. You can just go to our website, which is Smokefree sc.org, and on our website, we have a menu bar that has vape talk. On that bar, you click on it, and then there's a little form that you fill out with your contact information, and it automatically gets sent to our email, and then we'll follow back up with email. Our vape talks for youth and adults are free. We don't charge for those, so any groups can schedule them if they're interested.
[00:06:52] Speaker A: And how long do they last?
[00:06:54] Speaker B: So it's flexible. We try to give what the organization or the school has time for, and that varies. I like to have at least 45 minutes. I think that's my best time, but I've done it in as little as 25 minutes, if that's all a school can give me. So that second goal, I just rush through it then.
But, yeah, 45 minutes is what I like. But we can do it in 30 minutes if you have a lot of time, we can do an hour for questions. So it really depends on what you have, and I can make it work.
[00:07:23] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:07:24] Speaker B: And it can be in person or virtual.
[00:07:26] Speaker A: Okay. Good to know. All right, so y'all heard that one of the things that I really look forward to that smoke free South Carolina provides is the monthly tobacco free partners roundtable.
Explain what that is and to our audience and how they can get involved if they'd like to.
[00:07:48] Speaker B: Sure. So our Tobacco Free Partners Roundtable is one of our education initiatives as well as Vac talk. It is just a monthly meeting. It's held on Zoom on the fourth Friday of the month at 10:00 a.m. and it's just a place where those stakeholders I mentioned, and stakeholders is sometimes a fancy word. People hear it and they think they're not one. But when we say stakeholders, we just mean anyone who has an interest in tobacco, whether you work in it or whether you're just interested in learning more. So our tobacco prevention partners, community members, DHEC employees, just say something. Employees, they join us on these tobacco free partner meetings on Zoom, and we have a different guest speaker every month. And sometimes they're in the field of tobacco prevention and control, so they're talking a little bit about what they're doing. A few months ago, we had a guest speaker from the graphic design industry who talked about the purposeful youth marketing of vapes by the vape companies.
We hear from different sorts of guest speakers that just talk about the services they provided, how it's related to tobacco prevention and control, and how others can get involved in that. And like I said, we have a variety of audience members who join us. Sometimes we just had community members who are interested in learning more, and great resources are shared. So obviously, we have our guest speaker share their resources. But other members, other meeting participants can share information about what's going on in their organization as well. These meetings, again, are also free. They're just on Zoom, so anyone can join, and you can find information about that on our website as well. So smokefreesc.org dot. And right beside that vape talk tab I mentioned is a tobacco free partners roundtable tab. You would just click on it, and we always have our monthly information there. So who our next guest speaker is, the title of their presentation. So that way you'll know what's going to be discussed, and then there's a link that you click to register. You do have to pre register for that Zoom meeting. And then also on that tab, we have recorded presentations from our past tobacco free partners meetings. So even if you weren't able to make one, you can go through that recording list and pick what sounds interesting to you and watch that.
[00:10:04] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah, that.
I haven't had a chance to go back. I missed the one with the design guy there. I want to go back and watch that one.
[00:10:14] Speaker B: That one was interesting.
[00:10:15] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm sure. Thanks for that reminder.
One of our projects that we do hand in hand with smoke free South Carolina is our counter tool.
Could you explain to our listeners what countertool is and then maybe if you have some of the results of that locally or statewide of what we're looking at and what we do with that information?
[00:10:42] Speaker B: Sure. So Smoke Freesc has been in partnership with countertools since 2016.
They are also a nonprofit agency that they're nationwide, but they're located in North Carolina, and they provide all sorts of services, but we mainly use them for point of sale data. And point of sale just refers to the place where tobacco is being sold. So the point where the purchase is made. So that can be a gas station, a convenience store, a vape shop, a grocery store, wherever that tobacco product is being sold. And we do assessments. We have partnered with. Just say something here in Greenville county where you used your volunteers and staff to go out to different gas stations, convenience stores to do store assessments. So we like to look at different things. You know, how is tobacco marketing placed throughout the store? Is there any advertisements near candy? Are they eye level? Are they doing price promotions? Things like that. So that gives us great data that we can look at when we are talking about the need for smoke free policy in communities, or the need for different ordinances, zoning regulations, things like that. So point of sale encounter tools provides a network of data for us, and that's essentially what we use when we're looking at numbers. I brought some numbers with me, so I'll look at my paper. So I'm not, you know, saying wrong things.
[00:12:09] Speaker A: No worries.
[00:12:10] Speaker B: But in Greenville county, we know that there are about 760 tobacco retailers throughout the entire county.
[00:12:18] Speaker A: Sounds like a lot.
[00:12:19] Speaker B: It is a high number. And we know accessibility is one of the easier ways that teenagers are able to buy tobacco products, even though they're not 21 yet. Because you can walk to so many different locations to buy these products, there aren't any guidelines as to where they can be located near schools. So there are high number in Greenville county that are located within 1000ft of a school.
We have 66 located within 1000ft of a school, so easily within walking distance. And then of those 760 retailers in Greenville County, 194 within the past year have had violations because they were caught sailing to minors. And that's 25%. And we also know that that's only the ones that were caught. So it's not. Stores aren't being monitoring, aren't being monitored every hour, every day. So we only know about 25% on the days they were monitored were served with a violation because they were caught selling to miners.
And then also another way that countertools provides data on tobacco retailers and that high level of accessibility. So if you think about the number of McDonald's that are in your area, I feel like there's a good bit of McDonald's around, definitely. But on average, there are 31 times more tobacco retailers than there are McDonald's.
[00:13:44] Speaker A: In an area that seems out of whack.
[00:13:47] Speaker B: It does seem out of whack when you think about it, but it's so. That just means it's so easy. It's so accessible, you don't have to travel far to find that product that you want to buy.
[00:13:57] Speaker A: And so, like you mentioned, access.
Ease of access.
[00:14:01] Speaker B: Ease of access. Yes.
[00:14:02] Speaker A: Is a key factor in underage having. Going into a store to buy one. We already know 25% of the stores don't check ids.
And you said something there. You said 21.
So do you have to be 18 to buy cigarettes or do you have to be 21 to buy cigarettes?
[00:14:27] Speaker B: So it's 21 now. The federal government changed the age across the nation to 21 to buy cigarettes and tobacco products now.
[00:14:35] Speaker A: And so South Carolina didn't have a choice in that because it's federally mandated.
[00:14:40] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:14:40] Speaker A: Then we have to follow that, whether we. Whether the officials like it or not.
[00:14:45] Speaker B: Yes, yes. We obviously like it, but the officials and gas station and convenience stores have to follow that.
[00:14:51] Speaker A: Okay. All right. That's good to know. Are the.
Let's see. We do that, what, every two or three years?
[00:14:58] Speaker B: The assessments? Yes. It just depends on how dated the old data is and if it's time for a county to go through assessments again.
[00:15:09] Speaker A: And, I mean, Greenville's growing like crazy. You're well aware of that. I know you live over in Spartanburg, which is growing, too. The whole area is growing.
And so I was trying to think the stat you had about tobacco outlets located near schools, do you know, or can, will the data tell us whether it's elementary school or middle school or high school?
[00:15:41] Speaker B: So I haven't delved that deep into it. So I don't know if it is available or not. I don't know how they divide it on counter tools. So I don't have that data today. But I forgot to share that. I do know the three highest zip codes in Greenville county for closest proximity to tobacco retailers.
[00:15:59] Speaker A: Oh, that would be great to know.
[00:16:01] Speaker B: Yeah. So the three retailers that have the highest level of tobacco retailers within 1000ft of a school is 296-172-9662 and 29650.
[00:16:13] Speaker A: So the first one is Whitehorse Road, the Berea area. The second one is Malden, and the third one is part of Greer.
[00:16:23] Speaker B: Okay, interesting.
[00:16:24] Speaker A: And so if you live in any of those three zip codes, guess what?
You have more tobacco outlets located near schools than anywhere else in Greenville county. So therefore, access to tobacco products are.
Is greater in those three zip codes. And I want to read those or let you read those three zip codes one more time and pause after you read the first one, because I want to say something.
[00:16:55] Speaker B: 29617.
[00:16:57] Speaker A: So that's our friends over in the Berea traveler's rest area, 29662, that's our friends over in Malden next to Simpsonville, that has a smoke free policy.
[00:17:11] Speaker B: And 29650, and that's half a Greer.
[00:17:14] Speaker A: The other zip code in Greer is 29651. And Greer does not have a smoke or vape free policy.
[00:17:23] Speaker B: Correct.
[00:17:23] Speaker A: So anybody out there in those three zip codes, we can help you.
[00:17:29] Speaker B: Yes, reach out to us.
[00:17:30] Speaker A: That's right. So, Tara, as we're bringing this to a close today, is there one more thing or two things that you're like, oh, I really wish I was able to say this, that you would like to leave with our listeners.
[00:17:49] Speaker B: Sure. So I would like to repeat again, you know, in our mission statement, we talk about stakeholders, but anyone can be a stakeholder. If you're a concerned parent, a teacher, a community member, you can get involved. You can reach out to just say something here in Greenville county to get involved. Smoke free SC is across the state, so you can reach out to us, attend those meetings we talked about. But it's easy to get involved. We also have community grants. So if you are a nonprofit organization and you want to get a little more involved in tobacco policy work, you can reach out to me to learn more about those community grants. Our grants focus on youth engagement and grassroots leadership.
Whether that could be starting a coalition. I didn't mean to say grassroots, but coalition building or support. So whether you already have a smoke free coalition or you want to create one, we have community grants that can be used to help with that as well. And then this is more for our schools, our educational professionals. We also have a vape disposal kit, so legally, you are not supposed to throw vapes into the trash because they are terrible for the environment.
They have terrible microplastics that take forever to break down. They have lithium batteries that cause fires and explosions in landfills and in principles desks.
[00:19:08] Speaker A: Hazardous waste is what she's trying to say. Those little vape pens, it's more than just nicotine.
[00:19:15] Speaker B: Yes, exactly. A lot of dangerous things in there that we don't need to throw into our trash that ends up back in our water or in our soil. So we have the vape disposal kits again for free that we provide to schools. That way they can stay in administrator's office so they can put all of those confiscated devices in a safer place. Not 100% safe, I have to say that, but safer than their desk drawers or the trash can. So if you're interested in that as well, you can reach out to us.
[00:19:41] Speaker A: Through our website and give us that website address one more time.
[00:19:45] Speaker B: So smokefreesc.org dot Smokefree SC one word.
[00:19:50] Speaker A: All right, sounds good. Well, Tara, thank you for this time. We appreciate it. And I know we'll continue to work together. We have a long history between the two organizations, and we look forward to continuing that relationship. So once again, Tara from Smoke Free South Carolina.
And that concludes this week's edition of just say something's podcast. Look forward to seeing you next time. Until then, take care.
