Department of Health extends “Stronger Together” campaign exposing tobacco industry targeted marketing to Hawai‘i’s youth

he tobacco industry spends an estimated $22 million on marketing in Hawaiʻi each year costing the state $611 million in annual health care costs, $1.1 billion in lost productivity, and nearly $1,000 per household in state and federal tax burden.[1] In an effort to combat the epidemic of youth vaping, the Hawaiʻi State Department of Health (DOH) and the Hawaiʻi Public Health Institute (HIPHI) recently relaunched the Stronger Together campaign. Since 2022, this campaign has called attention to strategies used by tobacco companies that target Hawaiʻi’s young people. Its current extension is in response to a recent movement among the counties to regain their ability to regulate the sale of tobacco products in their communities.