San Leandro City Council Weighs Lives vs. Tobacco Profits

The City Council in San Leandro is set to hear the proposal of a new tobacco retailer license ordinance on June 5th that would fund a compliance check program for local retailers. Retailers would be subject to decoy purchase stings by the Police Department to enforce California’s minimum purchase age of 21. They also would have to stop selling fruit, candy, and pastry flavored tobacco products that have a track record with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for attracting youth. According to the CDC, 7 out of 10 middle and high school students who have tried tobacco have used a flavored product. Ordinances like the one that Vice Mayor Lee Thomas is proposing are aimed at preventing a new generation of customers addicted to nicotine.

As tobacco and vapor industry representatives and local retailers organize to oppose the new ordinance, public health advocates are countering. The question that the City Council is now facing is whether or not they want to side with profit margins or the public health of their community. A study published in April 2017 by the Lancet Medical Journal found that 6.4 million people worldwide died in 2015 due to tobacco use and the United States was in the top 4 among countries with the highest death rates.

Asian Pacific Partners for Empowerment, Advocacy & Leadership (APPEAL) states, “Lung cancer is the leading cancer killer of Asian Americans (Miller et al., 2008). Internal tobacco industry documents from the early 1990s reveal a concerted effort to target Asian American women with advertisements. An industry consultant commented that Asian American women might connect smoking with a sign of gender equality and start “smoking more as they believe they should enjoy the same freedom as men” (Muggli et al., 2002).”

According to the CDC, “20.9% of Hispanic/Latino adults reported current use of tobacco in 2013. The tobacco industry has contributed to programs that enhance education of young people, such as funding universities and colleges and supporting scholarship programs targeting Hispanics. They have also provided significant support to Hispanic political organizations, cultural events, and the Hispanic art community.”

Tobacco is the leading cause of death for African Americans and the number 1 most preventable cause of death to all. Carol McGruder, a founding member and Chair of the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council, says “While we try to send our children to get home and back safe every day, the tobacco industry is there beating that drum. While we’re worried about our boys killing each other or being killed by police, the tobacco industry is there beating that drum. It is our (African Americans) number 1 killer, killing more than anything else.”

The industry that promotes this deadly product to our communities hides behind the false argument that local tobacco regulations will hurt small local retailers. It is time for San Leandro to hold the tobacco industry accountable for their lies and manipulation of both our residents and retailers.