Anti-Tobacco Coalition Calls for NYC Action as State Senate Weighs Flavors Ban

NEW YORK, NY (11/04/2019) (readMedia)-- Today, the New York State Senate held a hearing on vaping and electronic cigarette safety.

In response, Andre Richardson, campaign manager for Flavors Hook Kids NYC, a coalition of more than one hundred health, religious, parent and community organizations, issued the following statement:

"Today's hearing on the dangers of vaping is an urgent issue that demands an immediate response-most immediately, to address the sale of flavored products targeting children. But there is no reason to wait for the legislature to act next year, or for New York's courts to approve Gov. Cuomo's executive order to ban flavored e-cigarettes. New York City can and should act immediately to ban the sale of all flavored e-cigarettes and to restrict the sale of menthol cigarettes, which are also used by Big Tobacco to hook kids. Every day that New York City waits to curb the sale of these dangerous products, countless kids become addicted and face a lifetime of costly nicotine use and serious health consequences."

There are two pieces of legislation in the City Coucnil, intros 1345 and 1362, which would restrict the sale of menthol cigarettes and ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes. Most of the City Council and more than 100 organizations now support the legislation, as well as city leaders such as former Mayor David Dinkins and NAACP New York Chapter President Hazel Dukes and Congressman Meeks.

Big Tobacco has aggressively marketed flavored tobacco products to underage users for decades to hook new generations of smokers--particularly in communities of color, where menthol cigarettes are sold to young people, creating disproportionately negative health outcomes for African Americans.

New FDA survey data show youth use of e-cigarettes skyrocketed 135% in the last two years, and 5 million middle and high school students nationwide now use e-cigarettes. Last month, the Department of Health released data that shows 1-in-15 NYC middle school students reported using e-cigarettes and 14.4% of middle school students (about 29,000 students) had tried e-cigarettes.

In the past few months, at least 450 people across the country were hospitalized for vaping-related illnesses and at least 26 people have died. In New York, the state Department of Health issued a warning about e-cigarette use, citing multiple cases of "severe pulmonary disease" among patients "who reported recent use of vape products." Governor Cuomo issued a temporary emergency regulation that would ban all flavored e-cigarettes, including menthol--but it was recently slowed down by a State Court.

About Flavors Hook Kids NYC

Flavors Hook Kids NYC -- a coalition of more than one hundred health, religious, parent and community organizations -- is an all-out effort to restrict the sale of all flavored tobacco products in New York City, including e-cigarette flavors and menthol cigarettes, before 2020.

Members of the growing coalition are: Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, NAACP, Parents Against Vaping e-cigarettes (PAVe), African American Clergy and Elected Official organization (AACEO), American Cancer Society Action Network (ACS CAN), New York Communities for Change, American Cancer Society Action Network, the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council NAATPN, American Heart Association, American Lung Association, Neighbors in Action, Last Call Church, United Concerned Citizens, NYPIRG, Bishop Courtenay of Emmanuel Church of God in Brooklyn, Arthur Ashe Institute Public Health, among others. The list is in formation.