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Letter: On World Tobacco Day, a call for lawmakers to take major step to curtail the suffering caused by smoking

FILE - In this Tuesday, April 8, 2008. file photo, A woman holds a cigarette in her hand as she plays a slot machine at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, N.J. (AP Photo/Cie Stroud, File)

In second grade, I made my dad a special gift: an ashtray. Even at the young age of seven, I knew the grasp nicotine had on him. My dad was an otherwise healthy man. He ate nutritious foods and exercised regularly for 50 years, but the hold that tobacco products had on him lasted throughout his life and ultimately led to his untimely death in 2020.

My sister witnessed our dad’s tobacco use throughout her childhood, too. She started using menthol cigarettes in her 20s. When I started working with the American Heart Association, I learned that the minty flavor of menthol products makes them easier to start and harder to quit.

After my dad died, I noticed the greater hold tobacco had on her. As a caregiver to our ailing mother, my sister coped with stress by smoking even more. Ultimately, tobacco use took her life at the age of 46 earlier this year. In just over two years, I’ve lost two of my closest loved ones to tobacco. I’m not alone in my loss, my grief. Tobacco use is a leading cause of preventable disease and death nationwide.

Recently I found that old ashtray. I keep it as a reminder of my goal to prevent others from getting hooked by Big Tobacco in the same way my dad and sister did. Last year, the Food and Drug Administration took the major step of proposing to end the sale of menthol cigarettes and all flavored cigars. Today, on World No Tobacco Day, a global effort to raise awareness about the harmful and deadly effects of tobacco use, I’m calling on the administration to quickly finalize those rules and prevent other families from facing the same loss I have at the hands of the tobacco industry.

Jennifer Merback, Cottonwood Heights

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