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You are invited to participate in the next Medical Center Hour, "Pushing Cool: Big Tobacco, Racial Marketing, and the Untold Story of the Menthol Cigarette" on Wednesday, March 9, from noon-1 p.m.

This lecture describes the methods and strategies used by the tobacco industry over nearly a century to establish menthol cigarette markets in the United States. It examines the role of numerous actors in establishing and defending these markets, among them: social science consultants, marketing experts, industry insiders, and civil rights groups. It also explores the ways in which the industry racial attitudes, health beliefs about cancer, coughing, and health psychology in general, in order to (at first) market menthol brands as "health" products then (in the 1960s) to pivot toward racially focused marketing. The lecture describes how menthol markets were built using these strategies. Finally, it examines the rising tide of public health and legal criticism of these methods, which have led to the currently proposed FDA ban on menthol cigarettes.

Pushing Cool:
Big Tobacco, Racial Marketing, and the Untold Story of the Menthol Cigarette
Wednesday, March 9
noon-1 p.m.
Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82470186796

Part of the Brodie Award Lecture in Medical Education. Speakers include Keith Wailoo, PhD, Henry Putnam University Professor of History and Public Affairs, Department of History, School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University President (2020-22), American Association for the History of Medicine, Princeton, NJ; and Dominique Tobbell, PhD, Professor and Director of the Eleanor Crowder Bjoring Center for Nursing Historical Inquiry, School of Nursing, UVA, moderator.

Resources:

1. Pushing Cool: Big Tobacco, Racial Marketing, and the Untold Story of the Menthol Cigarette (University of Chicago Press, 2021)
2. "The FDA's Proposed Ban on Menthol Cigarettes,"(link is external) New England Journal of Medicine (2019)

Prof. Wailoo is Henry Putnam University Professor of History and Public Affairs at Princeton University where he teaches in the Department of History and the School of Public and International Affairs. He is former Chair of the Department of History, the former Vice Dean of the School of Public and International Affairs, and current President (2020-2022) of the American Association for the History of Medicine. In 2007 Wailoo was elected to the National Academy of Medicine. In 2021, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2021, Wailoo received the Dan David Prize for his “influential body of historical scholarshipfocused on race, science, and health equity; on the social implications of medical innovation; and on the politics of disease.” 

Wailoo is an award-winning author on drugs and drug policy; race, science, and health; and genetics and society; and he is known also for insightful public writing and media commentaries on history of medicine, pandemics and society, and medical affairs in the U.S. His books include, Pushing Cool: Big Tobacco, Racial Marketing, and the Untold Story of the Menthol Cigarette (University of Chicago Press, 2021); Pain: A Political History (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014); How Cancer Crossed the Color Line (Oxford University Press, 2011); The Troubled Dream of Genetic Medicine (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006); Dying in the City of the Blues: Sickle Cell Anemia and the Politics of Race and Health (University of North Carolina Press, 2001); and Drawing Blood: Technology and Disease Identity in Twentieth Century America (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997).

Prof. Tobbel is the author of Pills, Power, and Policy: The Struggle for Drug Reform in Cold War America and its Consequences(University of California Press, 2012), and Health Informatics at Minnesota: The First Fifty Years (Tasora Books, 2015). Her forthcoming book, Dr. Nurse: Science, Politics, and the Transformation of American Nursing (University of Chicago Press), examines American nurses’ more expansive roles in the post-World War II era.

She has taught a variety of courses on the history of 20th-century American healthcare, with an emphasis on the ways that race, gender, class, sexuality, and disability determine Americans’ experiences with and access to healthcare.

A board member of the American Association for the History of Nursing, Dr. Tobbell has earned fellowships from the Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing, UVA’s Miller Center, the Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center, and the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy.Originally from the United Kingdom, Dr. Tobbell earned an undergraduate degree in biochemistry from the University of Manchester, and both a Master of Art and a PhD in the history and sociology of science from the University of Pennsylvania.

Medical Center Hour is free of charge and open to the public. For more information, see Center for Health Humanities and Ethics.

Watch Medical Center Hour recordings here.

Profs. Wailoo and Tobbell have declared no personal/professional relationships with commercial entities producing healthcare goods and/or services related to this presentation. Medical Center Hour planning group members M.D. Childress PhD; R.J. Bonnie LLB; R. Carpenter DrNP; J.F. Childress PhD; M.F. Marshall PhD; J. Mutter MD MA; K. Reid PhD RN FNP-C CNL; L. Shepherd JD have no personal/professional relationships with commercial entities producing healthcare goods and/or services, while R. Dillingham MD MPH reports interests with Gilead and Warm Health Technology Inc. UVA Office of Continuing Medical Education faculty and staff have no personal/professional financial relationships with commercial entities producing healthcare goods and/or services.

How to Claim Continuing Education (CE) Credit for Medical Center Hour:

How to Claim Continuing Education (CE) Credit for Medical Center Hour: Using the Google Chrome or Firefox browser on a phone, tablet, or computer, go to https://cmetracker.net/UVA and log into your CE account with your email and password. Choose ‘CE Certificate-Eval for Credit,' enter Activity Code 143024 then complete and submit your evaluation. You have 30 days from this program date (16 February 2022) to evaluate and obtain credit for this program. This is the only way you can receive credit for this Medical Center Hour.

In support of improving patient care, the University of Virginia (UAV) School of Medicine/School of Nursing is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team. UVA School of Medicine/School of Nursing designates this live activity for a maximum of 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit.^TM  Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. UVA School of Medicine/School of Nursing awards 1contact hour for nurses who participate in this educational activity and complete the post-activity evaluation. UVA School of Medicine/School of Nursing awards 1 hour of participation (consistent with the designated number of AMA PRA Category 1 Credit^TM  or ANCC contact hours) to a participant who successfully completes this educational activity. UVA School of Medicine/School of Nursing maintains a record of participation for six years.