This is a landmark day!
The retail drug store chain CVS announced previously that they would no longer be selling tobacco at their 7,700 stores nationwide, and that it would be happening starting October 1st, 2014.
But instead of waiting that long, they decided to suspend all tobacco sales starting today — on 3 September 2014, instead!
But that isn’t the only change that the company is making — they’re actually changing their corporation name from CVS Caremark Corp. to CVS Health and the CEO Larry Menlo made the announcement while also proclaiming:
“Today as CVS Health we are tobacco-free.”
CVS executive VP and chief medical officer Dr. Troy Brennan explained why the company would no longer be selling tobacco products. He said:
“We see ourselves as a health care company. There is nothing as bad for health as smoking. So selling a product in our store that’s causing people health problems didn’t make sense.”
The lofty precedent that the drug store chain hopes to set won’t NOT hurt their pockets though. The company expects to lose $2 billion per year from the loss of tobacco products – products which will instead be replaced by smoking cessation aids.
Many authorities around the country were applauding the company’s move including Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell who said:
“We hope others will follow CVS Health’s lead in this important new step to curtail tobacco use.”
And if you’d expect a former smoker like President Obama to not be pleased with this decision – well, you’d be totally wrong!
Here’s what a statement from the White House said:
“Today, CVS took a significant step in stopping the sale of tobacco products in their stores and kicking off a smoking-cessation campaign.
As one of our country’s largest retailers and pharmacies, the newly-named CVS Health is setting a powerful example that we hope others in the industry will follow.
CVS’s actions will not only help Americans across the country who are trying to quit smoking, it will also help ensure that when families go to their neighborhood pharmacy, they can get the information and support they need to live healthy lives, which can contribute to driving down health care costs.
The President has made creating a tobacco-free generation a top priority. These efforts include signing the landmark Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which gave the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authority over tobacco products; expanding tobacco cessation coverage and making new investments in prevention campaigns through the Affordable Care Act; and increasing the cost of cigarettes through a federal excise tax increase in the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act.
And 50 years after the Surgeon General├óΓé¼Γäós landmark Report on Smoking and Health, we have reduced smoking rates by half. However, our work is far from done, and today├óΓé¼Γäós announcement by CVS Health is an important step forward in improving the health and lives of millions of Americans.”
We LOVE how CVS has taken this first step of banning all tobacco products from their stores, and hopefully other pharmacy chains will follow!
Which we can absolutely see happening, but only because CVS has paved the way!
Props to you, CVS!!!