By: Ernest Gurulé
For the first time in twenty years, tobacco sales have shown an increase, according to the Federal Trade Commission. This is in no small part the result of a reenergized spending spree by tobacco companies to boost sales. Analysts say they also may have also seen the pandemic as entrée to a more profitable bot- tom line. In its latest survey, the FTC reports that domestic tobacco sales rose nearly a billion dollars last year.
While there is no definitive link that COVID and the nation-wide lockdown from the virus was the reason for the jump in tobacco sales, Bloomberg News reported that “bulk purchases” or what the industry calls “pantry loading” may have been a sign that smokers impacted or quarantined during the dark days of COVID spurred this growth out of fear of shortages.
The spike in cigarette sales may have bolstered the bottom line of big tobacco and manufacturers like Camel, Marlboro and other legacy brands, but not happy about things were doctors who for years have been railing against tobacco calling it the major cause of lung cancer in this country and around the world.
The latest information from the American Cancer Society indicated that there were 235,760 new cases of lung cancer diagnosed last year. The number of men versus women diagnosed was fairly close, with 119,100 men and 116,660 women. Nearly 132,000 lung cancer deaths were recorded in 2020, with men dying at a slightly higher rate, just over 7,000 more lung cancer fatalities than women. Still, doctors say that without tobacco, there need not have been 69,000 men dying of the disease last year.
For Latinos, said the ACS, lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths. Lung cancer kills more Latino men than all other forms of cancer and the second-leading cause of cancer deaths among Hispanic women, this despite the fact that Latinos smoke at a rate that is twelve percent lower than their White peers.
Lung cancer diagnoses are generally for older people, a population that has carried the habit longer. The majority of people with lung cancer are aged 65 and up. The AMC says that only a very small percentage of lung cancer falls on those younger than 45. The average age for this diag- nosis is 70.
Sarah Barela, the younger sister of former Denver City Council President Ramona Martinez, was in this age group and also a lung cancer victim. Barela was Martinez only sibling but her death, she said, “strikes a whole family.” “I never smoked,” said Martinez. “I thought it was a waste of time and money.” But her sister, who began as a young teen, had no such reservations about lighting up despite the constant but friendly harangue by both friends and family to quit. For Martinez, the memory of her sister’s unnecessary suffering from the disease remains painful from its earliest moments to its last.
Barela’s diagnosis began one day as she was headed to a doctor’s appointment. Martinez recalled her sister saying later that when she prepared to leave her home she seemed in a fog, a half-step slow and, at first, couldn’t open the garage door. Once on her way, she was disoriented and hit a car. It was a minor accident but still serious enough that her husband insisted on taking her to get checked out. He thought she might have suffered a concussion. It wasn’t. “They found out she had cancer and it had spread to her brain.” Doctors offered options but, very practically, the cancer’s head start made recovery a long shot. Stage IV cancer, Barela’s condition, works that way. “We knew she was in for a long, terrible ordeal.”
Barela had worked a number of years running the family’s travel agency. Her personality, outgoing and friendly, made her a natural for selling the friendly skies or ocean cruises. But a cigarette was never far away. When pushed to quit, she would refuse. It was, said Martinez, just something she liked.
But like others who say the same thing—that they enjoy it—there is another truth. Tobacco’s active ingredient, nicotine, is addictive. It hijacks the brain in the same way far more sinister drugs do, including heroin, say researchers. A smoker becomes dependent and it’s that dependency that, over the long haul, increases the possibility of lung cancer, heart disease and numerous other health issues.
Few days pass without Martinez thinking about her sister and the disease that big tobacco not only continues to aggressively market here but also around the world where its imprint is equally, if not more painful. Lung cancer deaths worldwide are estimated at nearly two mil- lion a year.
After years of declining profits, the rise in tobacco sales may turn out to be an anomaly. What is not is the tobacco industry’s aggressive targeting of younger smokers who it wants to sell not just cigarettes but another product that is every bit as dangerous and addictive.
Vaping is where the industry sees its next genera- tion of smokers. And it is pouring billions into marketing schemes that it hopes will entice them and make them lifelong consumers. “Adolescents don’t think they will get addicted,” said neuroscientist Marina Picciotto in a Yale research paper. “But when they do want to stop, they find it very difficult.” Vaping’s reward remains nicotine, the industry’s, profits. Last year, vaping sales topped $6 billion. But its future looks even brighter. The industry predicts a 27 percent growth by 2028.
Martinez says after living through the suffering her sister endured, she is disgusted with tobacco’s new plan to entrap a young and unsuspecting long term market. The industry sees its sexier and more exotic product as its future. Researchers see it as a Trojan Horse delivery system and one that may seem more benign but is every bit as dangerous. “It does bother me. That stuff gets into your lungs,” said Martinez, before adding, “We have enough diseases without creating more.”
