October 25, 2024

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PRESS CONTACT: Josh Brown, (202) 503-9671, [email protected]

PRESS ADVISORY: Targeted and Left for Dead: Sacrificed at the Altar of Tobacco Industry Profits

AATCLC Co-Chairs Available for Interview on Australia and New Zealand Tour

WASHINGTON, DC – For decades, Indigenous Peoples and African Americans have mobilized their limited resources in a David-and-Goliath battle, pushing their respective governments to protect them from the relentless, racist targeting by the tobacco industry. Despite the inequities they face in this struggle to save lives, hard-fought gains have been won. 

Unfortunately, we have witnessed the New Zealand government reverse its historic law, which would have reduced retail outlets, regulated tobacco to non-addictive levels, and created a Tobacco-Free Generation, all while undermining Māori sovereignty. During this same time, the U.S. government announced an indefinite delay of the promised and court-ordered final rules that would have removed mentholated cigarettes and flavored cigars off the U.S. market. 

Both legislative initiatives were intended to address the long-ignored public health needs of the respective Māori and African American communities. However, these promising initiatives were thwarted by commercial tobacco-nicotine industry interferences and political expediency.

African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council (AATCLC) Co-Chair Carol McGruder and Co-Founding member Dr. Valerie Yerger are in Australia and New Zealand from October 24 to November 2.  They are presenting at the OCEANIA Tobacco Conference with their Maori and Indigenous colleagues, Andrew Waa, Lani Teddy, and Raglan Maddox. They will be available for virtual and in-person media interviews to discuss the plight of African Americans, the growing resistance to commercial tobacco in the U.S., and the similarities of their struggle with those of the Māori.

AVAILABLE IN PERSON DATES:

• Sydney October 26-27 
• Wellington October 28-31
• Auckland October 31-November 2

Formed in 2008, the mission of the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council (AATCLC) is to inform and influence the direction of tobacco control as it affects the lives of African American and African immigrant communities. The AATCLC works at the intersection of social injustice and public health policy. Working with health jurisdictions, elected officials, community-based organizations, tobacco researchers, activists and the media, the AATCLC has played a key role in elevating the once obscure issue of regulating the sale of menthol and flavored tobacco products to one of national concern and action. 

Learn more at www.SavingBlackLives.org.