Addressing Dual Tobacco Use in West Virginia: An Expert Panel

Audience: The tobacco control groups who will most benefit from this poster will be state/local tobacco control programs and coalitions who are working in areas that have a high prevalence of smokeless tobacco (ST) use and smoking (“dual use” is the use of ST and smoking combined) and are doing policy and/or cessation work; researchers who are interested in finding out more about dual use; and quitline vendors who encounter dual users in their work. Key Points: In December 2011, Break Free Alliance convened an expert panel of 23 tobacco prevention specialists, researchers, policy makers and others in West Virginia. The meeting objectives were to explore the prevalence of dual tobacco use in WV, identify successes and challenges to addressing dual tobacco use in WV, and develop targeted recommendations to address dual tobacco use. Examples of recommendations generated include increasing the tobacco tax in WV while ensuring that ST is taxed on the same level as cigarettes; developing quitline protocols specifically for dual users; and asking legislators to pledge not to take tobacco industry money. Educational Experience: The audience can learn the key points and ways to apply them to their work by reviewing the poster, interacting with the presenter, and gaining access to the full set of recommendations either online or as a hard copy. Benefits: The benefits include learning more about a topic that is not only new and relatively unexplored, but also very relevant as the market for ST products such as snus expands to different subpopulations.