In today’s post, John J. Seng, GLOBALHealthPR Chair and Spectrum Founder & CEO, discusses the recent actions of CVS, the first major US pharmacy retailer to stop selling tobacco products.
I was happy to read just now that HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell saluted CVS Health today for stamping out cigarette sales as of today, one month earlier than the company pledge of October 1.
Her statement is short enough to reprint here:
We applaud CVS Health for becoming tobacco-free and ending the sale of cigarettes and tobacco products at its 7,700 CVS/pharmacy locations. CVS accomplished their goal one month ahead of their deadline of October 1.
We also commend CVS Health on the launch of their national and personalized smoking cessation program.
CVS Heath’s tobacco free policy is an unprecedented step in the retail industry, and will have an impact in bringing our country closer to achieving a tobacco-free generation, a call to action that we announced in January.
We hope others will follow CVS Health’s lead in this important new step to curtail tobacco use.
“We hope others will follow CVS Health’s lead…” Hmmm, as I read that last sentence, I thought of another major retailer, err, wholesale warehouse concern which still has the chance to follow and do the right thing when it comes to reducing heart disease and cancer in the US: Costco Wholesale. [Read more…] about The New “CVS Health” Gets It