Fighting back: Educators, agencies join nonprofit for 1st countywide tobacco summit

May 18—Santa Barbara County educators and local agency members joined nonprofit Fighting Back Santa Maria Valley last week for a first-ever countywide tobacco prevention summit via Zoom as they seek to halt youth tobacco use.

The four-hour event, which drew about 80 registrants, was held Thursday to provide tobacco prevention information and tools to those working with local youth such as teachers, principals and counselors.

"The target is to get those who have a larger voice in the lives of students ... with the hope that they'll take the information they got and disseminate it to students," said Edwin Weaver, executive director of Fighting Back Santa Maria Valley.

While Fighting Back leads several youth wellness programs focused on tobacco prevention and other topics in the community, this was the first year the organization was able to hold a tobacco summit, thanks to $450,000 in funding through a federal Drug Free Community grant.

Summit attendees heard former tobacco users share their stories, as well as information from experts about tobacco laws throughout Santa Barbara County and how vaping advertisements in particular target different communities.

Yaneth Rodriguez, director of the Hispanic/Latino Coordinating Center at USC, noted how promotional discounts for vaping products and other advertising strategies can draw in youth, especially those in mostly-Latinx areas.

"Two-thirds of kids visit a convenience store at least once a week, so advertising is especially effective towards kids," Rodriguez said. "Certain minority and ethnic groups are also subjected to more tobacco ads in certain areas."

The 2020 National Youth Tobacco Survey found that 23.6% of U.S. high schoolers and 6.7% of middle schoolers used e-cigarettes, with around 1.73 million fewer youth using tobacco products than in 2019.

However, with some experts noting higher levels of alcohol use during the COVID-19 pandemic, Weaver said he is eager to see whether data will show a similar trend over the past year for youth tobacco use.

"The pandemic hit, and theoretically, substance abuse would go up during a pandemic. It really is hard for us to measure if any of these ordinances or larger steps that we took are going to be effective when it comes to youth reduction," he said.

According to American Lung Association report card data shared by the county Public Health Department at the summit, the majority of cities in the county have some level of restriction for tobacco retail and use of tobacco in outdoor areas and housing, with some receiving better scores than others.

Guadalupe and Santa Maria, as well as the unincorporated areas of Santa Barbara County, have implemented the most restrictive tobacco retail policies by requiring tobacco retailer licensing, banning the sale of flavored tobacco and setting minimum pack and price levels.

Such steps can make it harder for youth to purchase and use tobacco, according to Nikita Gupta, outreach coordinator for the county's Tobacco Prevention Program.

"If we up the pack size and the price, it's harder for youth to buy as easily or conceal," Gupta said, explaining that cheaper packs with smaller amounts of tobacco can prove more tempting to kids.

While the cities of Carpinteria, Santa Barbara and Goleta have implemented one or two of the three recommended tobacco retail restrictions, the cities of Solvang, Lompoc and Buellton have not implemented any.

When it comes to outdoor smoking, Santa Maria and Lompoc have designated the least amount of sites as smoke-free areas, while Guadalupe, Carpinteria and Santa Barbara have designated the most.

Most local cities also have mandated that apartments, condominiums or housing common areas be smoke-free to prevent the spread of secondhand smoke. However, Buellton, Lompoc and Santa Maria have not mandated any smoking restrictions related to housing.

Santa Maria City Attorney Thomas Watson said the city has not had issues thus far with their retail tobacco restrictions, adding there are no plans at this time to add additional restrictions for housing and outdoor areas.

Weaver said they hope to hold an in-person summit next year that could be used as a form of professional development for teachers and other employees who work with youth.

"It's hard for us to reach every seventh grader in the county, because we're just five full-time [staff]," Weaver said of the Fighting Back team. "That's why the summit is important to our whole strategy — seventh-grade health teachers will hopefully decide to cover these things."