Quick hits: Cigarette smoking hits record low; hay rescue for ranchers hit by wildfires; rodeo women return; Yonder Radio

Less than 10% of Americans reported smoking cigarettes
in 2024. (Photo by A. Siimon, Unsplash)

For the first time in recorded U.S. history, the number of Americans who smoke cigarettes has dipped below 10%, reports Sarah Todd for STAT. While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention collected the data, the U.S. government took the unusual step of releasing it without scientific comment. The lack of a CDC analysis led independent analysts at the digital New England Journal of Medicine Evidence to synthesize the information, which turned out to be good news. "It shows that 9.9% of U.S. adults reported smoking cigarettes in 2024, down from 10.8% in 2023. E-cigarette use remained unchanged from the previous year at 7%."

Wildfires in drought-stricken parts of the U.S. can threaten ranchers' livelihoods by burning through vast swaths of grassland meant to feed a cattle herd, forcing livestock owners to purchase feed or sell livestock. But recently, ranchers have been getting a helping hand from Farm Rescue’s 'Operation Hay Lift,' which steps in and provides free hay, including its delivery, to "help ranchers who lost pasture and feed supplies," reports Jennifer M. Latzke of Kansas Farmer. "With the recent historic wildfires burning more than 701,000 acres across Nebraska, Operation Hay Lift is likely to expand."

Unlike this 1981 couple, some Reese's fans aren't 
as excited about new ingredient mix-ups. 

Once upon a time, when chocolate and peanut butter crashed into each other, it was a happy accident. At least, that's how the 1981 Reese's peanut butter cup ad told the story. But when Reese's food designers create new shapes or design twists, known as "line extensions," not everyone appreciates the new mix-ups. Jonathan Deutsch for The Conversation explains, "Brad Reese, grandson of the founder, issued an open letter criticizing the Hershey Company for introducing line extensions – in this case, mini hearts for Valentine’s Day, with the flavors familiar to Reese’s lovers but made with cheaper ingredients, such as “chocolate candy” and “peanut butter creme.” While Brad Reese and other vocal Reese's fans may not like the ingredient switches, it's a common food industry practice.

The past few years have burdened many American farmers with high costs and low incomes. Farmers' stress can increase with every extreme weather event, fertilizer cost increase or spiking fuel price. It's good to remember that the Farm Aid Hotline (1-800-FARM-AID) is available Monday–Friday to farmers across the U.S. The Farm Aid Hotline connects farmers with resources for stress, legal or financial issues. The AgriStress HelpLine (833-897-2474) is an option for farmers in Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Missouri, Montana, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wyoming. The free, confidential helpline is open 24/7.

Hali Williams, right, in action. She won RodeoHouston's breakaway 
roping title in 2026. (Photo by Mallory Beinborn, RodeoHouston)

If they'd waited for an invitation or a welcoming wave to take a seat on the horse, they'd still be waiting. "Rodeo said bronco riding wasn’t a sport for women. They got on anyway," reports Haley Potter for Offrange. "Rodeo has tried everything to keep women from it. . . . We were long limited to timed events like barrel racing. . . . Despite a deep history of women in roughstock going back well over a century, modern bronc riding has largely been a man’s game. . . . But all that is changing now."

           

It's new, it's all about rural, and it's served fresh every week. Say hello to Yonder Radio -- an hour-long show designed to cover current events and "feature nuanced stories that represent the 60 million people who live in rural America, and the distinct communities they call home," reports The Daily Yonder. Each topic will add depth to how news and events impact rural lives. Interviewees on the show will highlight arts, music and community projects geared toward rural audiences. Jared Ewy, a veteran radio personality and regular contributor to the Daily Yonder, is Yonder Radio's host. The show is also available as a podcast. If you’re a station interested in broadcasting Yonder Radio, get in contact with the team at info@yonderradio.com 

FDA isn't using its power to stop the sale of hundreds of vaping products that it's ordered off the shelves, Stat reports

Food and Drug Administration photo

Even though the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has ordered hundreds of flavored, nicotine-heavy vaping products off of the market, "Vape companies are regularly flouting the FDA’s orders. They’re making, stocking, and selling the illicit goods. And the agency is just letting it happen," Nicholas Florko and Elissa Welle report for Stat, the medicine-and-science publication of The Boston Globe.  

The authors write that while the FDA has ordered more than 100 vape manufacturers to stop making more than 250 specific flavors and vapes, "We found scores of companies across the country that are defying the FDA's demands." And despite having "sweeping legal authorities" to crack down on vape companies that ignore its bans, "ranging from levying seven-figure fines to physically pulling products off shelves," the Stat investigation found that the FDA has never used those powers, according to its own data. And in several cases, "It’s even dropped cases against companies that it knows are still selling illegal products." 

The FDA declined Stat’s request for an interview with Commissioner Robert Califf or the head of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, Brian King, but a spokesperson implied that the agency may soon get tougher against companies that ignore its orders, Stat reports.

Vape shops argue that the FDA’s orders aren’t clear enough, and that until they are more so, they'll keep selling the products. The shops “are doing their best, despite a complete lack of clarity or transparency from the agency, to piece together what products are still legally able to be sold,” Amanda Wheeler, president of American Vapor Manufacturers, told Stat.

The writers say their investigation is likely an underestimation of the issue, since they only analyzed warning letters sent to companies that formally asked the agency for permission to sell their products, and then had that request denied and did not focus on the hundreds more companies that received warning letters for never asking the FDA for permission at all.

Ballot measure roundup: Coloradans approve restoration of gray wolves, paid family and medical leave

Colorado voters approved the restoration of gray wolves and mandated paid family and medical leave Tuesday, the first time any state has done such things in a referendum, on Tuesday.

Those were just two of 184 statewide ballot measures, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Here are a few others, courtesy of NCSL:

• Arizona, Montana, New Jersey and South Dakota approved efforts to legalize recreational marijuana, while voters in South Dakota and Mississippi approved medical marijuana programs.
• Oregonians decriminalized small amounts of certain controlled substances, such as heroin and cocaine, and the Beaver State also legalized psilocybin—become the first state ever to do so. The drug comes from mushrooms and is used in rituals by some Native American tribes.
• Ranked-choice voting, which was adopted in Maine recently, failed in Massachusetts and looks likely to fail in Alaska.
• Virginia voters adopted a redistricting commission, and that change means most states will now have a commission of some kind, though some are merely advisory, or only come into being if the legislature fails to pass maps.
• Voters approved taxes on tobacco and electronic-cigarette products in Colorado and Oregon. Washington will require public schools to provide comprehensive sex education beginning in 2022. 
• California voters rejected stricter parole and sentencing policies and stopped the legislature’s efforts to replace cash bail with pretrial risk assessments.
• Kentucky passed Marsy’s law, the crime victims’ bill of rights.
• Florida voters raised the minimum wage.
• An effort to overturn California’s affirmative action ban failed.
• Two “Stand Your Ground” Rights measures pass in Alabama.
• Mississippians approved the state’s new magnolia flag design, which was put before voters after the legislature decided to replace the previous flag feature the confederate battle emblem.

Updates are at NCSL’s State Elections 2020 webpage and statewide ballot measures database.

Study: covid-19 significantly worse among smokers

People who smoke are more likely to contract covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, and more likely to have a severe case than non-smokers, according to a newly published analysis by University of California San Francisco scientists. That includes people who use e-cigarettes.

That has ominous implications for rural areas, where smoking rates are higher.

In a meta-analysis of recent studies about 11,590 covid-19 patients, the researchers found that current and former smokers were nearly twice as likely to see advanced progression of the disease, and more likely to die from it. "Smoking and e-cigarette use increase risk and severity of pulmonary infections because of damage to upper airways and a decrease in pulmonary immune function," according to the paper.

The authors recommend that physicians and public health officials collect more data on smoking and create smoking cessation initiatives to help blunt the impact of the pandemic.

E-cig crackdown could hurt mom-and-pop 'vape shops'

Washington Post map based on Yelp data; click on the image to enlarge it.

President Trump's proposed rackdown on electronic cigarettes could hurt small, independent shops that are "the fastest-growing retail segment of the past decade, as well as the one with the highest share of employees at small businesses," Andrew Van Dam reports for The Washington Post. "Two thirds of "vape shop" workers are employed by the 93 percent of businesses with fewer than 10 employees — a higher rate than for any other retail segment."

Tobacconists (the broader category that includes the shops) have far outgrown other retail segments over the past decade, according to Labor Department data. That's because of electronic cigarettes, according to online review site Yelp; it says the shops have been the fastest-growing large retail segment since the end of 2012. Yelp's data show that the shops are concentrated in the South and West, with the highest numbers in Nevada and Oklahoma.

In response to recent deaths related to electronic cigarettes and concerns about their appeal to teens, the Trump administration recently announced it will ban most flavored e-cigarette liquids. The governors of Michigan and New York have announced similar bans, which will kick in sooner. "Vape shops in those states are reeling," Van Dam reports. "Customers are racing to stock up on flavored liquids while store owners and employees ponder an uncertain future. Refills of liquids that e-cigs heat to the point of vaporization make up the bulk of these shops’ businesses, multiple managers said — and their adult customers overwhelmingly prefer flavored options."

E-cigarettes do not produce just a vapor, which is a gaseous form of a liquid; they produce an aerosol, in which particulates are suspended. The industry has branded itself with "vape" and "vaping."

Since vape shops open mainly combustible-cigarette smokers seeking alternatives, the shops could be as disproportionately rural as smoking is, and a federal ban on flavors could hit many small-town vape shops hard. Ryan Brown, who manages one such shop in Iron Mountain, Mich. (pop. 7,000), told Van Dam the shops are a major source of support for local community events and even helped fix up the disc golf course. If the flavor ban goes through, "It’s going to affect our town," he said. "They rely on mom-and-pop stores to keep these mining towns going when the mines are gone. Imagine how much tax revenue they’re going to lose."

Mom-and-pop stores could also lose out when the Food and Drug Administration begins requiring approval for electronic-cigarette liquids already on the market, a bureaucratic step that could cost between $117,000 and $466,000. Expensive regulatory barriers could wipe out small businesses and leave only the largest vaping companies like Juul on the market, Van Dam writes.

Ky. health foundation makes available to anyone TV and radio spots with youth talking about electronic cigarettes

The Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky has released four new public service announcements in its campaign to show the dangers young people subject themselves to by using electronic cigarettes. The spots are part of the foundation's "I Just Didn't Know" campaign and feature Kentucky teens. The campaign materials are free to anyone who would like to use them.

The new PSAs include two 30-second videos for television and a 30-second and 60-second audio PSA for radio. Additionally, the campaign can provide PSAs that were released in April.

In one PSA, Hayley, from Grant County in the rural part of Northern Kentucky, says, "A lot of people don't know that one little pod of this e-cigarette is equal to a whole pack of cigarettes."

Research shows that public health campaigns can play a crucial role in reducing tobacco use among teens. A 2018 federal report said one in five high-school students and one in 20 middle-school students used e-cigarettes, a 78 percent jump for high schoolers over 2017 and a 48% jump for middle schoolers.

E-cigarettes do not release harmless vapors, but instead contain substances such as: ultrafine particles, which can be inhaled deep into the lungs; flavorings such as diacetyl, a chemical linked to serious, irreversible lung disease; volatile organic compounds, which are known to be carcinogenic; other cancer-causing chemicals; and heavy metals, including nickel, tin and lead, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

E-cigs also contain high levels of nicotine, which is highly addictive and can harm young people's brain development and reduce attention span and impulse control. Nicotine use in adolescence can also prime the brain for future addiction to other drugs, says the CDC.

On Aug. 7, the Food and Drug Administration announced that it was investigating 127 reports of seizures, tremors, fainting or other neurological symptoms that may be related to electronic cigarettes, and have asked anyone who has experienced such symptoms to report them.

All the PSAs can be found at www.ijustdidntknow.org. Contact Alexa Kerley at 877-326-2583 or akerley@healthy-ky.org for broadcast-quality copies.