Item 39 - Ordinance Prohibiting the Sale of Flavored Tobacco Products

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Although tobacco companies claim to be responding to adult tobacco users' demand for variety, it's clear that flavored tobacco products play a key role in enticing new users, particularly kids, to a lifetime of addiction. This growing market of flavored tobacco products is undermining progress in reducing youth tobacco use. Flavored Tobacco Products Are Popular Among Youth These sweet products have fueled the popularity of e-cigarettes and cigars among youth. A government study found that eight out of ten of kids who have ever used tobacco products started with a flavored product. 11 Across all tobacco products, the data is clear: flavored tobacco products are overwhelmingly used by youth as a starter product, and preference for flavors declines with age. The 2020 National Youth Tobacco Survey shows that among high school students, e-cigarette use declined to 19.6% in 2020, after increasing by an alarming 135 percent from 2017 to 2019 (from 11.7% to 27.5%).12 While the significant decline in youth users since 2019 is a sign of progress, youth e- cigarette use remains a public health crisis. 3.6 million kids still use e-cigarettes—the same number as when the U.S. Surgeon General called youth e-cigarette use an "epidemic."13 In California, 8.2%of high school students report using e-cigarettes. The California Student Tobacco Survey found that an increasing proportion of these youth are using flavored products (96.2% in 2019- 2020, up from 86.4% in 2017-2018). Among California high school e-cigarette users, the most commonly used flavor types are fruit (63.9%), mint or menthol (14.7%) and candy or sweet (13%) 14 Almost all e-cigarettes contain nicotine, a highly addictive drug. Young people are especially vulnerable to nicotine addiction.15 The Surgeon General has concluded that, "The use of products containing nicotine in any form among youth, including in e-cigarettes, is unsafe."16The manufacturer of JUUL, a popular e-cigarette among youth, claims that each JUUL pod contains as much nicotine as a pack of twenty cigarettes. Since the introduction of Juul, many youth are now using products that effectively deliver massive doses of nicotine and it is clear that large numbers of teen e-cigarette users are struggling with nicotine addiction. Youth e-cigarette users are also at risk of smoking cigarettes. A 2018 report from the National Academies of Science, Engineering & Medicine found that "There is substantial evidence that e- cigarette use increases risk of ever using combustible tobacco cigarettes among youth and young adults." 17 More recent research confirms this finding.18 Therefore, it is critical for any policy restricting sales of flavored tobacco products to include e-cigarettes. In January 2020, the FDA restricted some flavors in cartridge-based e-cigarettes, but exempted all menthol-flavored e-cigarettes and left flavored e-liquids and disposable e-cigarettes widely available in every imaginable flavor. New data show that the market share of these products has grown substantially and that youth quickly migrated to the flavored products that were exempt from the