1 Janet Coleson
From: Jen Grand-Lejano <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, February 1, 2022 4:17 PM
To: [email protected]; [email protected] Cc: Brian Davis; Amaya Wooding; Jimmy Ancira; Mayra Lopez; Blythe Young Subject: RE: Flavored Tobacco ordinance concerns - American Cancer Society CAUTION - EXTERNAL SENDER.
Hi Mayor Harris and City Attorney Coleson,
Thank you Mayor Harris for your time on our call today to give a preview of our concerns with the ordinance. I’m working in coalition with local public health org LGBTQ Minus Tobacco who were kind enough to draft a summary of our concerns below. The Contra Costa Tobacco Prevention Project Director, Mayra Lopez, is also copied to provide TA on the County’s ordinance which is stronger than what is being considered in Pleasant Hill. Below is a summary of our concerns with the ordinance, chiefly around loopholes in weight-based cigar definitions and the unmotivated exemption for flavored hookah.
Cigar definition issues
The 1/24/22 version of the ordinance uses a weight-based definition to differentiate little cigars and cigars. The cutoff is 3 pounds per thousand – anything above that is considered a cigar and exempted from the flavored tobacco sales ban.
However, this definition also exempts many cheap, flavored cigarillo products that are popular with youth, such as Swisher Sweet, White Owl, Splitarillos, and Black & Mild.
Alameda County public health staff have received communication directly from Marlboro parent company Altria saying that Black & Mild products weigh 4.3 pounds per thousand. Alameda County staff then went out to retailers and measured other cigarillo products, all of which weighed over 3 pounds per thousand.
Considering that it is 5 for 99 cent flavored products like Swisher Sweets and Splitarillos that youth are drawn to, SB 793 used a definition of “premium cigar” based on price and manufacturing process. That definition is “any cigar that is handmade, is not mass produced by use of mechanization, has a wrapper that is made entirely from whole tobacco leaf, and has a wholesale price of no less than twelve dollars ($12). A premium cigar does not have a filter, tip, or nontobacco mouthpiece and is capped by hand.” While Unincorporated Contra Costa County uses the same weight-based definitions for cigars and little cigars as the 1/24/22 version, that policy has no exemptions for flavored tobacco products of any kind.
Flavored Hookah
The 1/24/22 version of the ordinance introduces an exemption to flavored hookah that is not based on the health concerns surrounding the product. California youth who use hookah overwhelmingly prefer flavors (82.5%). Like vaping, hookah use makes youth more likely to use cigarettes and marijuana.
While the hookah industry has pushed a narrative that hookah is a historical cultural product, the truly historical form of the product is unflavored. The World Health Organization says “waterpipe tobacco smoking was popular among older men in the Middle East who used primarily the harsh non-flavoured tobacco, which was repulsive to youth. However, the introduction of flavoured tobacco in the early 1990’s rapidly escalated the use among young people, starting in the 2 Middle East” (See: https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/179523/WHO_NMH_PND_15.4_eng.pdf (-> secure-web.cisco.com) ) In the United States, hookah is disproportionately used by Black and Hispanic students, who like youth users are then more likely to vape and smoke cigarettes or marijuana.
Unincorporated Contra Costa gives no special treatment to hookah and in fact bans hookah lounges because of indoor secondhand smoke concerns. Pleasant Hill likewise has no hookah lounges and therefore no reason to give special treatment to another hazardous flavored tobacco product.
Other features of county policy
There are additional provisions like a minimum pack size for cigarillos, a cap on the number of retailers, and a minimum price for cigars that are present in Unincorporated Contra Costa County’s tobacco retail ordinance but absent from the 1/24/22 version. The relevant parts of the County municipal code are Chapters 445-6 and 445-10.
Please let us know if you have any questions.
Jen
Jen Grand-Lejano
Government Relations Director, CA - Northern California m: (925) 639.9130
American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, Inc.
fightcancer.org | 1.800.227.2345
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From: Jen Grand-Lejano
Sent: Friday, January 28, 2022 4:28 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Flavored Tobacco meeting request - American Cancer Society Hi Mayor Harris,
I’m reaching out from the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, where I specialize in local flavored tobacco policy to protect youth, and I’d love to meet to discuss and provide some technical assistance. We’re concerned that the ordinance that just passed 1st reading with an exemption for flavored hookah tobacco doesn’t align with Council’s intention to address the issue of youth tobacco use. Also, there’s an issue with the definition of little cigar/cigarillo which would unintentionally exempt many popular products, which are certainly very attractive to youth and sold cheaply with fruity flavors to target them and communities of color.
Might you be available to meet briefly in the next week to discuss? Thank you,
Jen
3 Links contained in this email have been replaced. If you click on a link in the email above, the link will be analyzed for known threats. If a known threat is found, you will not be able to proceed to the destination. If suspicious content is detected, you will see a warning. 1 Danielle Habr
From: Zach Seal
Sent: Thursday, February 3, 2022 7:17 AM
To: CityCouncilPH
Cc: June Catalano; Danielle Habr; Geoff Gillette; Juanita Davalos Subject: FW: Flavored Tobacco Products and Electronic Smoking Devices - Introduction of City Ordinance
Mayor Harris and Councilmembers:
Please see the email below from Ravinder Kaur, the owner of Cigarettes Outlet.
Zach
From: Ravinder Kaur <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2022 6:28 PM
To: Zach Seal <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Flavored Tobacco Products and Electronic Smoking Devices ‐ Introduction of City Ordinance Dear Mayor Harris, Vice Mayor Flaherty, and Council-members, I am the owner of Cigarettes Outlet and have been in business for about ten years now, and my business is widely known within the Pleasant Hill local community.
As a family business, we have diligently followed any city ordinance or California legislation passing that relates to our business these past years. Never have we: sold tobacco products to a minor or an adult that sought to give tobacco-related products to a minor. As we have diligently followed every rule that has been handed to us, we urge you not to pass this ordinance as it will not only significantly impact our business, but businesses like the Blue Cave, Legends Smoke Shop, OAKS Smoke Shop, and Ashland Smokeshop. These are a few of many businesses in Pleasant Hill that this ordinance will affect.
A part of the American dream is to have a free market and the right to consume. My family and I thoroughly believe this ordinance infringes the right of adults to choose what products they would like to consume and affect the market these businesses are in. While we believe this city ordinance has good-faith-based reasons to reduce the number of underage smokers, the same could be achieved without such strict ruling to ban flavored tobacco completely. Other policies enacted that are less challenging and detrimental to tobacco-related businesses could be enacted. Such as proper education to children about smoking products or the Pleasant Hill Police sending undercover decoys to smoke shops to ensure businesses are checking adequate identification.
Cigarettes Outlet is ready to comply with any other means asides from this strict ordinance. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Ravinder Kaur
2 On Thu, Jan 20, 2022 at 9:26 PM Zach Seal <[email protected]> wrote:
Hi Ravinder:
I wanted to follow up on the message I left for you this afternoon regarding the January 24th City of Pleasant Hill City Council meeting where the Council will be considering an ordinance that would prohibit the sale of flavored tobacco products and electronic smoking devices, including flavored vaping juices, flavored cigarettes (including menthol cigarettes), and vaping devices.
You can view the meeting notice and staff report for the ordinance at the link below. Scroll down to Item #2 under “9. Public Works and Community Development”
http://pleasanthillca.iqm2.com/Citizens/Detail_Meeting.aspx?ID=1899 Many thanks,
Zach
Zach Seal
Economic Development Manager
City of Pleasant Hill
100 Gregory Lane
Pleasant Hill, CA 94523
Office (925) 671-5213
Mobile (510) 219-1541
[email protected]