A plan for spending e-cigarette fees
Durbin and Krishnamoorthi propose legislation
Sen. Dick Durbin and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi propose funding program to fight teen vaping epidemic.
A fee placed on manufacturers and importers of ecigarettes could fund a federal prevention program to arm educators and students with tools to fight the teen vaping epidemic, according to pending legislation proposed by Sen. Dick Durbin and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi.
Durbin and Krishnamoorthi announced the federal legislation, dubbed the Prevent Act (Providing Resources to End the Vaping Epidemic Now for Teenagers), at an event Friday at Jones College Prep.
“The meteoric rise in youth vaping has created a national public health crisis,” said Krishnamoorthi, D-Schaumburg. Adequate prevention and education will be “a massive undertaking, but if we do it now, we have a chance of arresting this epidemic. And we have to do it immediately.”
Both legislators have been vocal about the dangers of vaping as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported steep increases in e-cigarette use among high school- and middle schoolage students. Public health advocates have blamed the devices for a new generation getting hooked on nicotine, and Durbin said Friday that producers of the devices should have to shoulder the burden of prevention costs.
Krishnamoorthi has also proposed limiting nicotine levels in e-cigarettes, and he leads a congressional subcommittee investigation into the marketing practices of Juul Labs, the largest maker of e-cigarettes, which has been criticized for targeting young people.
The Illinois attorney general’s office filed a consumer fraud lawsuit Thursday against Juul Labs, alleging it targets minors and misrepresents the ability of its devices to help smokers
quit.
While there are other pending efforts for federal, state and local flavor bans and other tactics to curb teen vaping, Durbin said the added fee could fund a stronger, “front-end” approach to educate kids before they start.
“I hope we’ve learned from past experience a ‘just say no’ campaign … is worthless,” Durbin said. “We have got to think of more creative, peer-to-peer efforts.”
The fee, assessed quarterly by the Food and Drug Administration, would be similar to existing user fees for cigarettes and other tobacco products. Makers of e-cigarettes would pay a fee based on the number of products they make. If the legislation is successful, the fees would create a $200 million fund allotted for FDA- and CDC-issued annual grants. State and local health departments and nonprofits could apply for the grants, which would do the following:
■ Train school employees on how to prevent vaping, and provide information on youth nicotine addiction and cessation tools.
■ Provide prevention resources for parents.
■ Develop social media and marketing campaigns to educate students on health risks through partnerships with advertising agencies, nonprofits, advocacy groups and others who work in youth substance abuse prevention.
■ Provide communication resources for students on how to talk to their peers about vaping.
The last piece is crucial, Durbin and Krishmoorthi said, and would enhance prevention work of educators across the country who started to notice the uptick in vaping in recent years. School administrators in the Chicago area have said they’ve implemented programs but are challenged by the wide availability of ecigarettes, despite laws banning minor use, and the ability of kids to hide the sleek, compact devices.
Students are also pushing vaping among their own social groups, Krishnamoorthi
said.
“This peer-to-peer type of campaign is absolutely essential if we’re going to change the culture,” he said.
Chicago Public Schools CEO Janice Jackson attended Friday’s event. She said CPS has adjusted its health curriculum to include vaping prevention, but additional funding would help its efforts.
Jones senior class President Trinitee Wells, 18, said students need more facts about vaping. Some of her peers won’t heed the warnings, she said, but “they will do so knowing the risks.”
Ruby Johnson, a New Lenox parent whose daughter fell ill and was hospitalized for a week in August from a vaping-related illness on the way to her Colorado college, is now an advocate speaking at congressional hearings and at Friday’s event. She said parents need education; she didn’t know what vaping was until she found a flashdrive-looking object in her daughter’s cosmetics case.
“I had to Google it,” Johnson said.
The legislation has bipartisan support and also is sponsored by Rep. Peter King, a New York Republican. But Durbin said he expects a fight.
“It’s going to be a battle,” he said. When “fighting Big Tobacco, they never give in early or easy.”
Yet the public backlash against Juul — and top investor Altria, the parent company of Philip Morris USA — has prompted recent concessions by the company, such as halting sales of flavored e-cigarettes that are appealing to teens, including, most recently, topselling mint. Tobacco and menthol flavors will now be the only available options.
The company, which has stated repeatedly that its products are aimed at adult smokers looking for alternatives, also has pulled its U.S. advertising and has developed programs to curb teen use of its products. Users across the country have sued the company, saying they’re addicted to nicotine and have experienced health problems. Juul, whose representative did not respond for comment, would pay the majority of the $200 million in annual revenue generated by the proposed fee as the company produces most ecigarettes sold in the U.S.
Along with statistics showing e-cigarettes are mostly used by teens, the e-cigarette industry is plagued by a mysterious respiratory illness that started to appear in patients earlier this year. As of last week, more than 2,400 people have been hospitalized and at least 52 have died, according to the CDC. While public health officials say they still don’t know the cause, more recent evidence points to THC-filled, black-market vapes as the culprit.