**PLEASE NOTE THIS IS A VIRTUAL PROGRAM THAT WILL TAKE PLACE VIA ZOOM. Registrants will receive a link to access the Zoom Meeting via email.**  

For decades, the tobacco and vaping industries have strategically and successfully targeted Black, LatinX, and LGBTQ+ communities with their addictive products. Of these unjust tactics, the racial targeting of the Black community with menthol cigarettes has had the most negative impact. Fast forward to 2015 and current day, and the tobacco and vaping industry came out with electronic cigarettes to addict a new generation on nicotine with similar marketing tactics. This presentation will explore the history of injustice within the tobacco and vaping industries, and the action steps Massachusetts has taken to prioritize community health over tobacco and vaping industry profits.     

Presented by Ashley Hall, MS Program Manager of the Northeast Tobacco-Free Community Partnership. The Partnership supports communities’ efforts to lower smoking prevalence and exposure to secondhand smoke; enhances state and local tobacco control efforts by exposing tobacco industry tactics; mobilizes the community to support and adopt evidence-based policies; and changes social norms.

This event is a collaboration between the Tewksbury Public Library and the Front Line Initiative with Prevention Project Manager Maria Ruggiero.