Banning Flavored Tobacco and e-Cigarette Sales Protects the Health of Youth
The recent rapid increase in vaping (also known as e-cigarette use) among young people threatens to undo decades-long reductions in smoking and tobacco use, with devastating consequences for the long-term health of this generation, our healthcare sector, and our community. Nicotine use in any form remains the single largest preventable cause of disease and premature death and is directly responsible for 480,000 deaths annually, or about one in five. [1]
On October 24, Sonoma County’s Board of Supervisors will be discussing a potential revision to the county’s tobacco retail license to include a ban on flavored tobacco and e-cigarette sales. Similar bans have been adopted by the cities of Sebastopol, Petaluma and Windsor and Santa Rosa is considering a ban. But without a countywide ban, these moves aren’t much of a deterrent. The County of Marin instituted a countywide ban in 2020 after data showed that vaping had more than doubled among seventh, ninth and eleventh graders in the county in just two years.
Vaping represents a serious threat to the immediate and long-term health of young people, including hospitalization, permanent lung damage, and even death. In addition, teens who use e-cigarettes are more likely to progress to smoking cigarettes in the future, with all the health risks this entails.[2]
We know that nicotine addiction often originates in adolescence with studies showing that close to 90% of adult daily smokers started before the age of 18, and that teens are more susceptible to nicotine addiction.[3] According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), youth are more likely than adults to use e-cigarettes. The updated 2022 Monitoring the Future Survey shows that 7% of 8th graders, 14% of 10th graders, and 21% of 12th graders nationally have vaped nicotine in the past 30 days.[4] Puff Bar is the most popular vaping product. One Puff Bar contains as much nicotine as at least 50 cigarettes.[5]
Local data reflect these disturbing national trends. In Sonoma County in January 2023, 8% of 9th graders and 13% of 11th graders reported using e-cigarettes recently. Among alternative school students, the number was 30%. In Marin County, more than 50% of youth report having tried e-cigarettes at some time and 80% don’t see great risk or harm from regular vaping according the county’s Department of Health and Human Services. This epidemic in vaping is driven by the marketing of flavored tobacco products as well as misunderstanding among youth about the danger of these products.[6]
Public policy tools such as tobacco retail licenses are among the most effective approaches to reducing tobacco use among young people. Considering current alarming trends, Ceres has joined with other members of Sonoma County’s cardiovascular disease collaborative Hearts of Sonoma County to urge the County of Sonoma’s Board of Supervisors to establish a countywide tobacco retail license (TRL) that includes bans on flavored tobacco and e-cigarette sales with adoption in all areas of the county, including cities.
While a ban on flavored tobacco sales and e-cigarettes is now the law in California (Senate Bill 793), the law has a known loophole that enables youth to continue to access these products: local enforcement is only accessible via criminal infraction. A countywide TRL would provide the local means for responding to violations of this ban by enabling suspension or revocation of retail licensing as well as assessment of fines.
Join Ceres and Contact the Board
Please join us in supporting this important step in protecting the health of our young people by reaching out to your Board of Supervisor before October 20 to urge them to support a countywide ban on flavored tobacco and e-cigarette sales.
You can email the Board of Supervisors at bos@sonoma-county.org, or call them at 707-565-2241.
NOTE: The use of e-cigarettes is often referred to as “vaping” because many people believe e-cigarettes create a vapor, which is then inhaled. But in fact, e-cigarettes produce an aerosol made up of tiny particles which is different from a vapor.
References
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of Smoking—50 Years of Progress: A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, 2014 [accessed 2018 Feb 22].
Rand Corporation (2018): https://www.rand.org/news/press/2018/10/02.html
Kong G, Krishnan-Sarin S. A call to end the epidemic of adolescent E-cigarette use. Drug and Alcohol Dependence. 2017;174:215–221. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2017.03.001. [PMC free article] [PubMed]
Monitoring the Future Survey 2022: https://monitoringthefuture.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/mtf2022.pdf
Stanford Prevention Toolkit, https://med.stanford.edu/content/dam/sm/tobaccopreventiontoolkit/documents/ecigarettes/Cigs-in-a-Pod.pdf
Hong, H., Addictive Behaviors, https://doi.org/10/1016/j.addbeh.2018.11.020