RESTRICT FLAVORED TOBACCO PRODUCTS
Easy access to kid-friendly f lavored tobacco is driving today’s youth tobacco and vaping epidemic. Fruit, mint and candy flavors mask the harsh taste of tobacco, making these products highly alluring to kids.
In recent years, e-cigarette use has skyrocketed among middle school and high school students. But e-cigarettes aren’t the only tobacco products that kids are using in high numbers: Menthol cigarettes, cigars, smokeless tobacco and hookahs have all become more popular among kids because they, too, come in sweet f lavors. Today, over 30 percent of high school students report using tobacco, putting these teens at risk for a lifetime of nicotine addiction and health problems, including cardiovascular diseases and cancers.
Local policies that protect kids are critical to preventing youth nicotine addiction and tobacco-related death and disease. The evidence is clear: Across all tobacco products, f lavors are overwhelmingly used by youth as starter products. Eighty-one percent of kids who have ever used tobacco started with a f lavor. Ninety-seven percent of kids who regularly smoke e-cigarettes (vapes) use f lavors.
Big Tobacco shamelessly uses this knowledge to entice kids into nicotine addiction by marketing their products in kid-friendly f lavors. In fact, f lavored tobacco products have long been a tool used by the industry to lure new and young customers. Today’s tobacco products come in over 15,000 f lavors like gummy bear, cotton candy, mint, menthol and mango. With their colorful packaging and sweet, candy f lavors, these products are often hard to distinguish from candy displays in local stores.
Many ask, what can be done to counter predatory marketing practices and sky-high youth tobacco use rates?
In the San Diego region, community organizations have worked together to support these policies and protect kids. Earlier this year, the San Dieguito Alliance worked with parents and students in Solana Beach to advocate for ending the sale of all f lavored tobacco products. This policy, combined with the tobacco retail license already in place, provides important protections. Solana Beach is not alone. Community volunteers also worked with Imperial Beach to support a policy to end the sale of all f lavored tobacco products.
Communities across California and the country are ending the sale of f lavored tobacco products and licensing tobacco retailers. This ensures stores aren’t selling tobacco to people under the age of 21 and removes the appeal of f lavored tobacco products. These local policies are key to reducing youth tobacco access and stemming this public health crisis.
Under the leadership of Supervisors Dianne Jacob and Nathan Fletcher, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors recently took a big step forward in protecting our kids from nicotine addiction by voting to end the sale of some f lavored tobacco products and license tobacco retailers.
Yet the policy creates a problematic loophole by allowing f lavored hookahs, f lavored premium cigars and f lavored pipe tobacco to remain on local shelves. Even a small percentage of youth who use these products deserve the same protection against the industry’s blatant targeting.
In addition, exempting certain f lavored products in this way will allow Big Tobacco to continue addicting our kids. After Congress prohibited all f lavored cigarettes except menthol cigarettes in the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, the industry increased marketing of f lavored cigars and e-cigarettes, and youth use of these products increased.
Strong local policies like these are especially important given the developments surrounding state-level protections. Over the summer, the California Legislature passed Senate Bill 793 — legislation that restricts the sale of f lavored tobacco products in California. But within days, the tobacco industry launched a referendum to overturn this lifesaving law.
This is a clear attempt to delay implementation and protect the industry’s revenue, allowing it to continue to addict our kids. According to calculations made by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, if implementation of the California f lavor law is delayed by two years, allowing tobacco flavors like grape, mint, menthol and gummy bear to continue to be sold, there will be approximately 37,000 more high school e-cigarette users.
The American Heart Association and American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network are committed to reducing youth tobacco addiction by supporting our communities in ending the sale of all f lavored tobacco products and the licensing of tobacco retailers. We look forward to working with local city officials and the incoming county Board of Supervisors to reduce the youth tobacco epidemic fueled by candy-f lavored products.
Together, we can save thousands of lives by reducing the devastating health impact of tobacco addiction. It starts by protecting our youth.
Barbour is the Southern California government relations director with the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. She lives in La Mesa. Weaver is the executive director of the American Heart Association San Diego Division. She lives in Oceanside. Strang is the executive director of the San Dieguito Alliance. She lives in San Dieguito.