Tobacco products may fool some

They look like mints, chewing gum, a green marking pen and bottled water. They have healthy sounding flavors including peach and apple, and they smell like fruits. They are tobacco products.

“The Washington County Health Partners Inc. created the backpack of non-tobacco items and their tobacco product look-alikes to show schools and legislators what the very ingenious tobacco people are doing to market to our youth,” said Clara Hinton, Somerset County tobacco educator. She is also on the executive coalition of the Washington County Health Partners Inc.

There is Camel Snus, a spitless tobacco product, that comes in flavors. The package looks like a cell phone or a container of mints. Skoal cut tobacco’s package also looks like mints or beef jerky. Ariva and Stonewall dissolvable tobacco products look like breath mints. White Owl Blunts in flavors including grape and strawberry look like the marking pen. Revved Up, a caffeinated energy dip, looks like mints. NicLite, a nicotine water sold as a homeopathic product, looks like a small bottle of regular water.

“This is one you won’t guess,” Hinton said. “It looks like a single packaged alcohol wipe. It blew me away. It is Nicogel. A kid could sit in class and the teacher would think he’s using a sanitizing gel and he is getting a fix in class.”

The dissolvable tobacco products contain two milligrams of nicotine, which is slightly higher than a cigarette.

“Little kids can overdose on just 10 milligrams,” she said. “This is serious stuff.”

The “What’s in Your Child’s Backpack” educational tool kit was developed as a regional effort across 10 counties.

“Most of these products are under $3, easy to hide, and look, taste and smell like candy,” Lee Rutledge-Falcione, director of Washington County Health Partners Inc., said in a written statement. “Aggressive marketing and development of these new products is promoting the use of smokeless products and putting our youth at risk. It is very important that tobacco use prevention education continues, even in this tight budget year.”

Tobacco companies spend $534 million to market their products in Pennsylvania, according to the Washington County Health Partners. Each year 18,500 Pennsylvania young people become new daily smokers.

Adults are also using the products, which cost much less than cigarettes, Hinton said. She teaches a smoking cessation class at Somerset Hospital and many of the adults in the class had already seen all the tobacco products.

“Pennsylvania is sadly the only state that does not have a tax or user-fee on other tobacco products,” she said. “Thirty percent of all teens who try nicotine products get addicted. It is a drug. It works on the brain. It has a permanent effect on the structure of the brain. We know kids are buying it — it’s affordable and it’s available and more products are coming out. Parents and teachers need to be aware because they may think something’s harmless and it’s not. Young people already know about it.