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Marketing's Role In Why Millions Of Americans Still Smoke

Jason Rieve
Tom Luljak with Linnea Laestadius (middle) and Melissa Seidl.

Over the last 50 years, there has been tremendous progress in getting Americans to stop smoking. In 1965, more than 40 percent of people living in this country smoked. The latest statistics show that number has dropped to about 17 percent. Still, that means more than 40 million Americans continue to puff away.

One reason for the continued popularity is the marketing of tobacco. A UW-Milwaukee researcher has been studying the impact of that marketing and has found that the push to use tobacco products is more aggressive in Milwaukee’s minority neighborhoods.

On this edition of UWM Today, we welcome Linnea Laestadius, assistant professor in UWM’s Zilber School of Public Health, and Melissa Seidl, a masters student in Public Health.

Tom Luljak hosted UWM Today on WUWM for more than two decades and is the inaugural host of Curious Campus.