Blog #32 May 2026

 World No Tobacco Day

Welcome to my thirty-second blog!! And yes, this time the blog will go in a different direction. Today is World No Tobacco Day and was created by WHO. Who’s WHO? No it's WHO as in World Health Organization. They created the day to share awareness to the harmful effects to the use of tobacco worldwide. From July 2012-June 2017, I was a member of FACT youth group, where we spread the truth about tobacco. At the same time I was also on the FACT Youth Board, helping to come up with new ideas for awareness including a rebrand to help get new members. Like WHO, at FACT we are not against the people who smoke. We are just showing awareness to the harmful effects of tobacco use and other nicotine products including e-cigarettes (vapes). Especially when most if not all advertisement is geared toward youth with colorful packaging and sweet flavors. Including the e-cigarettes being dangerous in other ways including they not regulated like cigarettes are these days. It took a long time for the regulation for cigarettes and it will take as long if not longer to have the same regulation for all the new products these companies are making not just the e-cigarettes.

When I was at University of Wisconsin Oshkosh and during a Chemistry of Materials course, we had someone talk about their company designing a nicotine proof plastic packaging for e-cigarettes (vapes). Now us as a whole needs to make tobacco products “youth-proof” so that our younger generation does not get their hands on these products. It was great for Federal & State Law to finally make the age to buy these products to 21 from 18. It took a long time for this to happen. I was glad that it happened before I turned 21. Raising the age is not the only thing that needs to be done.

You think I would not have a blog post without talking about Disney. Do not worry I will mention Disney right here. Who remembers characters in classic Disney films who smoked? Especially, my favorite villain, Cruella in One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961). It was the norm back then to have animated characters to smoke from any studio not just Disney. Disney has since not have animated characters smoke in films. On some of the DVD releases of Disney films they had smokefree.gov ads before the menu. They showed some scenes of the classic Disney characters smoking with added words like “Secondhand smoke is harmful to children” & “Don't be cruel” or “Keep your conscience clean”. 

It was so fun writing about World No Tobacco Day. I can’t wait for the next blog. Until next time, keep your days open for more knowledge. Thank you to everyone who reads this blog.