Whereas there exists conclusive evidence that tobacco smoking causes cancer, respiratory and cardiac diseases, negative birth outcomes, irritations to the eyes, nose and throat[1];
Whereas among the 15.7% of students nationwide who currently smoke cigarettes and were less than 18 years old, 14.1% usually obtained them by buying them in a store (i.e., convenience store, supermarket, or discount store) or gas station[2];
Whereas nationally in 2009, 72% of high school smokers and 66% of middle school smokers were not asked to show proof of age when purchasing cigarettes[3];
Whereas the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has concluded that nicotine is as addictive as cocaine or herein[4] and the Surgeon General found that nicotine exposure during adolescence, a critical window for brain development, may have lasting adverse consequences for brain development[5];
Whereas despite state laws prohibiting the sale of tobacco products to minors, access by minors to tobacco products is a major public health problem;
Whereas research has shown that raising the minimum legal drinking age to 21 has reduced alcohol consumption among youth and protected drinkers from long-term negative outcomes in adulthood, including alcohol and other drug dependence[6];
More than 80% of all adult smokers begin smoking before the age of 18; and more than 90% do so before leaving their teens[7];
Whereas the Institute of Medicine (IOM) concludes that raising the minimum age of legal access to tobacco products will reduce tobacco initiation, particularly among adolescents 15 to 17, and will improve health across the life span and save lives[8];
Whereas the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported that electronic cigarette use among middle and high school students doubled from 2011 to 2012[9];
Whereas in a lab analysis conducted by the FDA, electronic cigarette cartridges that were labeled as containing no nicotine actually had low levels of nicotine present in all cartridges tested, except for one[10];
Whereas according to the CDC's youth risk behavior surveillance system, the percentage of high school students in Massachusetts who reported the use of cigars within the past 30 days went from 11.8% in 2003 to 14.3% in 2011[11];
Whereas survey results show that more youth report that they have smoked a cigar product when it is mentioned by name, than report that they smoked a cigar in general, indicating that cigar use among youth is underreported[12];
Whereas in Massachusetts, youth use of all other tobacco products, including cigars, rose from 13.3% in 2003 to 17.6% in 2009, and was higher than the rate of current cigarette use (16%) for the first time in history[13];
Whereas research shows that increased cigar prices significantly decreased the probability of male adolescent cigar use and a 10% increase in cigar prices would reduce use by 3.4%[14];
Whereas nicotine levels in cigars are generally much higher than nicotine levels in cigarettes[15];
Whereas nonresidential roll-your-own (RYO) machines located in retail stores enable retailers to sell cigarettes without paying the excise taxes that are imposed on conventionally manufactured cigarettes. High excise taxes encourage adult smokers to quit[16] and high prices deter youth from starting.[17] Inexpensive cigarettes, like those produced from RYO machines, promote the use of tobacco, resulting in a negative impact on public health and increased health care costs, and severely undercut the evidence-based public health benefit of imposing high excise taxes on tobacco;
Whereas it is estimated that 90% of what is being sold as pipe tobacco is actually being used in nonresidential RYO machines. Pipe tobacco shipments went from 11.5 million pounds in 2009 to 22.4 million pounds in 2010. Traditional RYO tobacco shipments dropped from 11.2 million pounds to 5.8 million pounds; and cigarette shipments dropped from 308.6 billion sticks to 292.7 billion sticks according to the December 2010 statistical report released by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB)[18];
Whereas the sale of tobacco products is incompatible with the mission of health care institutions because these products are detrimental to the public health, and their presence in health care institutions undermine efforts to educate patients on the safe and effective use of medication, including cessation medication;
Whereas educational institutions sell tobacco products to a younger population who is particularly at risk for becoming smokers, and such sale of tobacco products is incompatible with the mission of educational institutions that educate a younger population about social, environmental and health risks and harms;
Whereas the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has held that "[t]he right to engage in business must yield to the paramount right of government to protect the public health by any rational means."[19]
Now, therefore, it is the intention of the Kingston Board of Health to regulate the sale of tobacco products.
[1]
Center for Disease Control and Prevention, (CDC) (2012), Health Effects of Cigarette Smoking Fact Sheet. Retrieved from: http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistice/fact_sheets/health_effects/effects_cig_smoking/index_htm.
[2]
CDC (2009), Youth Risk Behavior, Surveillance Summaries (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) 2010: 59, 11 (No. SS-55)) Retrieved from: http://www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/yrbs/index.htm.
[3]
CDC Office of Smoking and Health, National Youth Tobacco Survey, 2009. Analysis by the American Lung Association (ALA), Research and Program Services Division using SPSS software, as reported in "Trends in Tobacco Use", ALA Research and Program Services, Epidemiology and Statistics Unit, July 2011. Retrieved from: www.lung.org/finding-cures/our-research/trend-reports/Tobacco-Trend-Report.pdf.
[4]
CDC (2010), How Tobacco Smoke Causes Disease: The Biology and Behavioral Basis for Smoking-Attributable Disease. Retrieved from: http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/sgr/2010/.
[5]
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 2014. The Health Consequences of Smoking - 50 Years of Progress: A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta: U.S. National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, p. 122. Retrieved from: http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/reports/50-years-of-progress/full-report.pdf.
[6]
DeJong W, Blanchette J 2013. "Case Closed: Research Evidence on the Positive Public Health Impact of the Age 21 Minimum Legal Drinking Age in the United States." J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs, Supplement 17, 108 - 115, 2014.
[7]
SAMHSA, Calculated based on data in 2011 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.
[8]
IOM (Institute of Medicine) 2015, Public Health Implications of Raising the Minimum Age of Legal Access to Tobacco Products. Washington DC: The National Academies Press, 2015.
[9]
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2013. "Electronic Cigarette Use Among Middle and High School Students — United States, 2011-2012," Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) 62(35): 729-730.
[10]
Food and Drug Administration, Summary of Results: Laboratory Analysis of Electronic Cigarettes Conducted by FDA, available at: http://www.fda.gov/newsevents/publichealthfocus/ucm173146.htm.
[11]
CDC (2011) Youth Risk Behavior, Surveillance Summaries [MMWR 2012: 87 (No SS-61)]. Retrieved from: www.cdc.gov. and CDC (2003), Youth Risk Behavior, Surveillance Summaries [MMWR 2004: 53, 54 (No. SS-02)].
[12]
2010 Boston Youth Risk Behavior Study. 16.5% of Boston youth responded that they had ever smoked a fruit or candy flavored cigar, cigarillo or little cigar, while 24.1% reported ever smoking a "Black and Mild" Cigar.
[13]
Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Data Brief, Trends in Youth Tobacco Use in Massachusetts, 1993-2009. Retrieved from: http://www.mass.gov/Eeohhs2/docs/dph/tobacco_control/adolescent_tobacco_use_youth_trends_1993_2009.pdf.
[14]
Ringel, J., Wasserman, J., and Andreyeva, T. (2005) Effects of Public Policy on Adolescents' Cigar Use: Evidence from the National Youth Tobacco Survey. American Journal of Public Health, 95(6), 995-998, doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2003.030411 and cited in Cigar, Cigarillo and Little Cigar Use among Canadian Youth: Are We Underestimating the Magnitude of this Problem?, J. Prim. P. 2011, Aug.: 32(3-4):161-70. Retrieved from: www.nebi.nim.gov/pubmed/21809109.
[15]
National Institute of Health (NIH), National Cancer Institute (NCI) (2010). Cigar Smoking and Cancer. Retrieved from: http://www.cancer.govb/cancertopics/factsheet/Tobacco/cigars.
[16]
Eriksen, M., Mackay, J., Ross, H. (2012). The Tobacco Atlas, Fourth Edition, American Cancer Society, Chapter 29, p. 80. Retrieved from: www.TobaccoAtlas.org.
[17]
Chaloupka, F. J. and Liccardo Pacula, R., NIH, NCI (2001). The Impact of Price on Youth Tobacco Use, Smoking and Tobacco Control Monograph 14: Changing Adolescent Smoking Prevalence) 193-200. Retrieved from: http://dccps.nih.gov/TCRB/monographs/.
[18]
TTB (2011). Statistical Report - Tobacco (2011) (TTB S 5210-12-2010). Retrieved from: http://www.ttb.gov/statistics/2010/201012tobacco.pdf.
[19]
Druzik et al v. Board of Health of Haverhill, 324 Mass.129 (1949).