Public Comment
Hearts of
Sonoma County
February 7, 2025
HEARTS OF SONOMA
COUNTY PARTNERS
Dear Cotati City Council,
Aliados Health Hearts of Sonoma County (HSC) would like for the city to add tobacco retail license (TRL) policy to their goals in the current strategic plan and American Heart Association of
the North Bay goal setting period. In considering a TRL policy, the city will be protecting the long-term health of Cotati youth who are at risk from the alarming Ceres Community Project
increases in use of tobacco products over the past few years. Vaping Kaiser Permanente Santa
Rosa especially represents a serious threat to the immediate and long-term health of these young people, including hospitalization, permanent lung Northern California Center for
Well-Being damage, and even death. In addition, teens who use e-cigarettes are more likely to progress to smoking cigarettes in the future, with all the health Partnership HealthPlan of
risks this entails!
California
Healthy Petaluma Petaluma Ultimately, we would like the City Council to enact a tobacco retail Health Center license (TRL) that includes a ban on e-cigarette sales, which would mirror Santa Rosa Community Health strong policies already passed in neighboring jurisdictions of Santa Rosa and Petaluma.
Sutter Santa Rosa Family
Medicine Residency Hearts of Sonoma County is an initiative launched in 2014 with the goal to Providence Medical Group prevent heart attacks and strokes-leading causes of premature death Providence Community Health and disability in Sonoma County-through prevention, earlier detection, Programs and better management of chronic health conditions such as Sonoma County Department hypertension, diabetes, and obesity. Nicotine use is a known risk factor of Health Services for hypertension and cardiovascular disease. Working collaboratively Sutter Medical Group of the with health systems, hospitals, community health centers, and Redwoods community-based organizations, HSC has successfully contributed to Tobacco Free Sonoma County improving adult blood pressure control in Sonoma County —a key step in Community Coalition reducing premature deaths from heart attacks and strokes." We know that nicotine addiction often originates in adolescence with studies showing that close to 90% of adult daily smokers started before the age of 18, and that teens are more susceptible to nicotine addiction.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), youth are more likely than adults to use e-cigarettes. The updated 2024 "Monitoring the Future" National Survey shows that 5.7% of 8th graders,
9.8% of 10th graders, and 15% of 12'h graders have vaped nicotine in the The vision of Hearts of Sonoma County is to reduce heart attacks and strokes as a major killer of people in Sonoma County. Hearts of Sonoma County is improving cardiovascular disease prevention and management through active collaboration across healthcare organizations, community and social service partners, and community members to inspire good health and achieve health equity. past 30 days." Puff Bar is among the most popular vaping product. One Puff Bar contains as much nicotine as at least 50 cigarettes."
Local data reflect these disturbing national trends. In Sonoma County in January 2024, 4% of 9th graders and 6% of 11th graders reported using e-cigarettes recently (past 7 days). Among alternative school students, the number was 30%. This epidemic in vaping is driven by the marketing of flavored tobacco products as well as misunderstanding among youth about the danger of these products. vi Nicotine use in any form remains the single largest preventable cause of disease and premature death and is directly responsible for one in five deaths nationally. i In Sonoma County, tobacco use is responsible for an estimated 503 deaths annually, representing 13% of total annual deaths. iii The rapid increase in vaping among young people, and more recently a disturbing increasing trend in the use of oral nicotine pouches (e.g. Zyn), threatens to undo decades-long reductions in smoking and tobacco use, with devastating consequences for the long-term health of this generation, our healthcare sector, and our community.
We urge you to incorporate protecting and championing the lifelong health of youth in our community into your goals for the City of Cotati.
Sincerely,
Hearts of Sonoma County Leadership Team on behalf of HSC partners Beth Paul Kayla Flores Tindall MD MPH
Director of Community Programs Family Medicine, Kaiser Permanente La Clinica Faculty Sonoma Community Action Network Community Medicine Rotation Director Kaiser Permanente Santa Rosa
Karissa Moreno MA
Executive Director Lori Houston
Northern California Center for Well-Being Community Health Planning Analyst Sonoma County Department of Health Services
Rand Corporation 2018): https://www.rand.org/news/press/2018/10/02.html i Cheadle A, Rosaschi M, Burden D, Ferguson M, Greaves B, Houston L, et al. A Community-Wide Collaboration to Reduce Cardiovascular Disease Risk: The Hearts of Sonoma County Initiative. Prev Chronic Dis 2019;16:180596.
DOl: http://dx.doi.org/10.5888/pcd16.180596
i 'ong G, Krishnan-Sarin S. A call to end the epidemic of adolescent E-cigarette use. Drug and Alcohol Dependence. 2017;174:215-221. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2017.03.001. [PMC free article] [PubMed] i Monitoring the Future Survey 2022: https://monitoringthefuture.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/mtf2022.pdf v Stanford Prevention Toolkit,
https://med.stanford.edu/content/dam/sm/tobaccopreventiontoolkit/documents/ecigarettes/Cigs-in-a-Pod.pdf vi Hong, H., Addictive Behaviors, https://doi.org/10/1016/i.addbeh.2018.11.020 vii U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of Smoking-50 Years of Progress: A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, 2014 [accessed 2018 Feb 221.
vili Source: Calculated using CDC methodology for Smoking Attributable Mortality, Sonoma County DHS; CHIS 2012- 2016 pooled estimates; CDHP, CCDF 2012-2016 deaths; CPS-II(82-88)