Date:2022-1-13 21:36:54 Clicks:1832 【Font Size:
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By voting to end the sale of flavored tobacco products – including flavored e-cigarettes, menthol cigarettes, flavored cigars and flavored shisha tobacco – Sacramento County’s Board of Supervisors has taken bold action to protect kids from tobacco addiction, save lives and advance health equity. The Board’s action is the right move to stop the tobacco industry from addicting a new generation of kids.
We applaud Supervisors Patrick Kennedy and Phil Serna for their leadership in protecting the health of Sacramento County’s kids and promoting health equity. The Board’s action will crack down on the tobacco industry’s most pernicious tactic for luring and addicting kids – the marketing of flavored products. And it will help end the industry’s predatory targeting of Black communities with menthol cigarettes – a form of institutional racism that has taken a devastating toll on Black lives and health, is a major cause of health disparities, and must be stopped once and for all. A final vote is expected Jan. 25.
Flavored products have fueled the current epidemic of youth e-cigarette use. Nationally, over 2 million kids use e-cigarettes, with a growing percentage of them using e-cigarettes frequently or daily – a sure sign of addiction. And 85% use flavored products. Though the Food and Drug Administration has in recent months denied marketing applications for some flavored e-cigarettes, far too many flavored products – including the most popular youth brands like Juul and Puff Bar – remain available.
Flavored products have also long been a favorite tobacco industry strategy for targeting kids, Black Americans, Latinos, the LGBTQ community and other communities. Half of all kids who ever try smoking start with menthol cigarettes. The evidence shows that menthol makes it easier for kids to start smoking and harder for smokers to quit. Because of the tobacco industry’s predatory marketing, 85% of Black smokers now smoke menthol cigarettes, compared to less than 10% in the 1950s. Menthol cigarettes are a major reason why tobacco use is the number one cause of preventable death among Black Americans – claiming 45,000 Black lives every year – and why Black Americans have a harder time quitting smoking and are more likely to die from tobacco-related diseases like lung cancer, heart disease and stroke.
In addition, cheap, flavored cigars – sold in hundreds of flavors like cherry dynamite, tropical twist and chocolate – have flooded the market in recent years and fueled the popularity of these products with kids. According to the 2020 National Youth Tobacco Survey, cigars are now the most popular tobacco product among Black high school students and the second most popular tobacco product, after e-cigarettes, among all high school students.