"NYC Must Ban All Flavored Tobacco": Flavors Hook Kids NYC Responds to Cuomo's Menthol E-Vaping Addition

NEW YORK, NY (09/26/2019) (readMedia)-- Today, Gov. Cuomo accepted the recommendation of Health Commissioner Howard Zucker to include menthol e-cigarettes in his flavored e-cigarette emergency regulation.

In response, André M. Richardson, campaign manager for Flavors Hook Kids NYC, issued the following statement:

"The Flavors Hook Kids NYC Campaign applauds Gov. Cuomo's decision to include menthol e-cigarettes in the State's emergency tobacco flavors ban. It doesn't matter if it's bubblegum, cotton candy, menthol or mint, all flavors hook kids and can lead to a lifetime of nicotine addiction. There should not be any loopholes allowing Big Tobacco to peddle any flavor of any tobacco product. The New York City Council must now immediately act to make the ban permanent in the five boroughs by restricting the sale of all flavored tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes and flavored e-cigarettes."

BACKGROUND

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 Tuesday, 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 ever tried e-cigarettes.

Adding to the urgency, this summer, there have been at least 450 people across the country who were hospitalized for vaping-related illnesses and six people have died. In New York, the state Department of Health recently issued a warning about e-cigarette use, citing multiple cases of "severe pulmonary disease" among patients "who reported recent use of vape products."

Big Tobacco has also 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.

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.

The coalition is pushing for the passage of Intro. 1345 - a restriction of the sale of menthol cigarettes - and Intro. 1362 - a restriction of the sale of flavored e-cigarettes. Nearly half of NYC Council members support both bills.