According to a report by the TIMES of SAN DIEGO, the SAAFE Act proposed by San Diego City Council member Marni von Wilpert would ban the sale of flavored straws, flavored cigars, and minty cigarettes targeted at youth if passed. Hookah, premium flavored cigars, flavored loose tobacco, and non-flavored tobacco products would still be available for sale on store shelves.
With the proposal of the bill, an end to tobacco sales in San Diego is on the horizon, bringing relief to school districts, youth service organizations, healthcare workers, and parents.
The San Diego City Council will discuss the ordinance on Monday, April 25th. Experts predict that the meeting will be very lively.
The Neighborhood Market Association, a local tobacco industry lobbying group, has strongly opposed this regulation and cited a study from San Francisco, which found that removing flavored e-cigarettes from retail environments could lead to young people replacing them with traditional cigarettes.
Jonathan Winickoff, the Director of Pediatric Research at the esteemed Tobacco Research and Treatment Center at Massachusetts General Hospital, reviewed the study and disagreed with its findings. He pointed out that the study was conducted before the full implementation of the spice tobacco ban in San Francisco, and at the time of the research, only 17% of retailers were complying with the ban. Therefore, the analysis and results cited by opponents are invalid.
Winickoff and his colleagues cited data from Oakland that revealed a decrease in the use of regular cigarettes after the restriction of tobacco flavoring. More importantly, they highlighted research indicating that sales restrictions on tobacco flavors in San Francisco resulted in an overall reduction of almost 18% in tobacco use by young people aged 18-24.
Therefore, this study demonstrates that halting the sale of flavored tobacco is meaningful. The following facts should be taken into consideration:
Children are attracted to flavors. Young people are naturally attracted to sweet, fruity, and minty flavors. When addictive substances such as nicotine are hidden in flavors like passion fruit or sour apple, they are more likely to try them without hesitation.
Each vaping device of every flavor contains an amount of nicotine equivalent to one to ten packs of cigarettes. The nicotine content in each device is highly concentrated, and some teenagers consume an entire e-cigarette per day, effectively consuming the nicotine content of 20 to 200 cigarettes.
Teenagers' brains are more susceptible to addiction than adults' brains because they are still developing.
These facts emphasize why a survey showed that 4 out of every 10 high school students in the San Diego Unified School District have smoked.
Editor: Leung Ka-wai
Source: Times of San Diego
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