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November 15, 2021 <br />The Honorable Vicente Sarmiento, Mayor <br />Santa Ana City Council <br />20 Civic Center Plaza <br />Santa Ana. CA 92701 <br />Re: Flavored Tobacco Products <br />Dear Mayor Sarmiento and Members of the Santa Ana City Council: <br />The Campaign for Tobacco -Free Kids & the Tobacco -Free Kids Action Fund are pleased to submit this <br />letter in support of your efforts in the City of Santa Ana to reduce tobacco use, particularly among <br />youth. The Campaign for Tobacco -Free Kids is the nation's largest non-profit, non -governmental <br />advocacy organization solely devoted to reducing tobacco use and its deadly toll by advocating for <br />public policies that prevent kids from using tobacco, and help smokers quit. We commend Santa Ana <br />for being a national leader in its commitment to reducing the death and disease from tobacco use. It <br />is encouraging to see cities and counties in California continue to take thoughtful, evidenced -based <br />steps to reduce the number of kids who start using tobacco and help tobacco users quit. <br />While California has made great strides in reducing tobacco use, tobacco use remains the number one <br />preventable cause of premature death and disease in Santa Ana and the nation, killing 480,000 <br />Americans annually. As you discuss policy options, we stand with dozens of other national health <br />organizations to urge you to end the sale of all flavored tobacco products including candy flavored e- <br />cigarettes, sweet flavored cigarillos, and menthol cigarettes. <br />Prohibiting the sale of all flavored tobacco products in all tobacco retailers is a critical step that will <br />help protect children living in Santa Ana from the unrelenting efforts by the tobacco industry to <br />hook them to a deadly addiction. Flavored tobacco products are designed to alter the taste and <br />reduce the harshness of tobacco products so they are more appealing and easy for beginners, who are <br />almost always kids. These products are pervasive and are marketed and sold in a variety of kid -friendly <br />flavors. With their colorful packaging and sweet flavors, flavored tobacco products are often hard to <br />