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Items 9 – 11: Written Communications Page 1 of 1
CITY OF SARATOGA
Memorandum
To: Saratoga City Council
From: Debbie Bretschneider, Acting City Clerk
Date: September 2, 2015
Subject: Items 9: Written Communications
After publication of the agenda packet for the September 2, 2015 City Council Meeting, the City
received the attached written communications for the following agenda items:
‐Item 9: Report on Flavored Tobacco Regulations
American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network
980 9th Street, Suite 2200 Sacramento, CA 95814 707.290.0003
August 28, 2015
The Honorable Howard Miller
13777 Fruitvale Avenue
Saratoga, CA 95070
Dear Mayor Miller and Members of the Saratoga City Council:
The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) is committed to protecting the
health and well-being of the residents of Saratoga through evidence-based policy and legislative
solutions designed to eliminate cancer as a major health problem. In June, we submitted a
letter supporting passage of a Tobacco Retail Licensing (TRL), as a proven way to effectively
reduce youth access to tobacco products. We appreciate that this council took the important
step of passing a TRL for Saratoga, and we now encourage you to further strengthen these
protections for youth by prohibiting sales of flavored tobacco products, including e-cigarettes.
Tobacco use is a pediatric epidemic, with more than 80% of adult smokers beginning before the
age of 18, and nearly 100% before the age of 26. Adolescents are still going through critical
periods of brain growth and development and are especially vulnerable to the toxic effects of
nicotine. Of the 9 million youth currently living in our state, nearly 1.4 million of th em will
become smokers, and approximately 440,000 of those kids will die prematurely as a result of
tobacco use.
In 2009, Congress, banned cigarettes with flavors other tobacco or menthol. Tobacco
companies responded by expanding the types of non-cigarette tobacco products they offer, and
now make most of those products available in a growing array of kid-friendly flavors. Little
cigars, smokeless tobacco, and now e-cigarettes are marketed in a wide array of sweet flavors
and colorful packaging that appeals to youth. In 2014, for the first time, use of e-cigarettes by
California teens surpassed use of traditional cigarettes.
These trends are not accidental. For decades, the tobacco industry has worked to devise ways
to get youth to start smoking, and they are well aware that a key way is to mask the taste of
tobacco with sweet flavors. Tobacco industry internal documents uncovered during litigation
show that manufacturers have long regarded flavored tobacco as a “starter” product, from
which teen experimenters will “graduate” to adult brands.
American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network
980 9th Street, Suite 2200 Sacramento, CA 95814 707.290.0003
Your staff report summarizes some of the cities that have already initiated flavor bans.
However, one of the most recent is the City of Sonoma, which passed a TRL in June of this year,
which includes prohibiting sales of most flavored tobacco products, including e-cigarettes. I
have attached a copy of that ordinance for your review. ACS CAN encourages the City of
Saratoga to protect the youth of this community by adding a similar provision to Saratoga’s
newly passed TRL, and to consider revising definitions so that e-cigarettes will be redefined as a
tobacco product. Prohibiting the sale of flavored tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, will
help to prevent the tobacco industry from using these devices to lure the next generation of
young people to a deadly addiction.
Sincerely,
Cassie Ray
Government Relations Director, Northern California
American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network