Students, Educators, and Parents Demand State Legislators include Flavored Tobacco Ban in Budget

ALBANY, NY (03/13/2023) (readMedia)-- Today students and parents from Westchester and Long Island, members of the NYS PTA, NYS School Boards Association and New York School-Based Health Alliance, joined together to call on state lawmakers to end the sale of flavored tobacco in New York and increase the state's cigarette tax by $1. These proposals included in the Executive Budget will make tobacco products less appealing and more expensive for youth to prevent another generation falling victim to this deadly addiction. 280,000 18 year olds and younger who currently smoke will die prematurely from tobacco.

"The use of flavored tobacco among children and young adults continues to alarmingly rise," offered Kyle Belokopitsky, NYS PTA Executive Director. "Youth health and wellness and banning flavored tobacco continues to be of highest priority to parents, families and educators across the state, as each day we see the harms of youth using tobacco in our homes, schools, and pediatrician offices. We truly thank Governor Hochul and legislative champions supporting this initiative, and plead that it be included in the final enacted state budget."

"The tobacco industry continues to peddle its favorite brand of flavored poison-menthol cigarettes-hoping to hook yet another generation of children on nicotine and turning them into Big Tobacco's next lifetime customers. Governor Hochul's budget proposals are vital to New York parents working hard every single day to ensure them a safe and healthy future, which every single child deserves," said Meredith Berkman, Co-Founder, Parents Against Vaping e-cigarettes (PAVe).

"The New York School-Based Health Alliance, which represents over 250 school-based health centers which care for children in NY's most underserved communities, strongly supports the Governor's proposals to create a tobacco-free generation. We cannot allow the tobacco industry to continue to prey on these communities and hook kids as their replacement tobacco users through flavored tobacco products. The communities we serve are predominantly people of color and immigrant populations who are already struggling with significant health disparities including staggering numbers of asthma cases and other chronic diseases that we know are exacerbated by tobacco. This is about prevention and New York must enact these lifesaving policies in the final budget," said Sarah Murphy, Executive Director of the Alliance.

"The New York State School Boards Association supports the Governor's proposal to ban the sale of all flavored tobacco. Our members have explicitly directed us to advocate for legislation aimed at curbing youth tobacco use. NYSSBA will continue to support all measures that prioritize the health and wellbeing of students," said NYSSBA Executive Director Robert Schneider.

A recent poll out from Siena College showed a significant majority of New Yorkers surveyed were in favor of the proposed ban on menthol-flavored tobacco products, with 57% in favor versus 35% against. New Yorkers are also in favor of a one-dollar tax increase on cigarettes, with only a third of respondents against the measure, according to the poll.

New York State made great strides to prevent youth tobacco use by restricting the sale of flavored e-cigarettes in 2020–but the new regulations still allowed other dangerous flavored tobacco products known to increase addiction to continue to be sold. Menthol cigarettes, which are much easier to smoke and more addictive than regular tobacco, are still available on shelves and the number one way Big Tobacco hooks young smokers and keeps Black New Yorkers addicted.

According to the 2022 National Youth Tobacco Survey, more than 2.5 million kids across the country are using tobacco products. Of these youth, 85% of high school and 81% of middle school students use flavored products with fruit, candy/desserts/other sweets, mint, and menthol reported as the most popular flavors. Flavors are a marketing weapon used by tobacco manufacturers to target youth and young people to a lifetime of addiction.

For generations, Big Tobacco has aggressively marketed flavored tobacco products to underage users and communities of color, creating disproportionately negative health outcomes for African-Americans in particular. In New York State, menthol cigarettes are used by over half of all adult smokers (52%). 86% of Black smokers and 72% of Hispanic smokers smoke menthols. Now 62% of Americans support a ban on menthol, including two-thirds of Black Americans. Half of young people (ages 12-17) who had ever tried smoking start with menthol cigarettes. In 2021, 41.1% of high school smokers reported using menthol cigarettes.