Saint Paul – A longtime leader in protecting youth from the harms of tobacco, Saint Paul now is one of just 10 cities in Minnesota that restricts all flavored tobacco and will raise the tobacco sales age to 21. The Saint Paul City Council voted unanimously on Oct. 16 in favor of Tobacco 21, making it the 53rd community in Minnesota to do so. “Saint Paul has been a longtime leader in youth tobacco prevention, and we appreciation the leadership shown by the council tonight in becoming the 53rd community in Minnesota to raise the tobacco age to 21,” said Kristen Ackert, Policy and Research Manager at the Association for Nonsmokers-Minnesota. With e-cigarette use among youth continuing to rise, communities in Minnesota are working to combat what the U.S. Surgeon General has called an “epidemic.” Amid the backdrop of an ongoing national outbreak of severe lung injuries associated with vaping, new survey results released earlier this month show an alarming jump in the rate of teens vaping in Minnesota. According to the 2019 Minnesota Student Survey, one in four Minnesota 11th graders reported using an e-cigarette in the past 30 days. That is a 54 percent increase from the 2016 survey. Overall youth tobacco use had already taken an upward swing in 2017 for the first time in 17 years because of e-cigarette and flavored cigar use. Council member Chris Tolbert pointed to the green shirts of the Tobacco 21 supporters, which quotes the stat “Approximately 95% of adult smokers started before they were 21. If youth don’t start before 21, they likely never will,” and said that was why he supported the measure. Saint Paul joins a small club that has have restricted all flavored tobacco and raised the tobacco sales age to 21. It includes Minneapolis, Duluth, Mendota Heights, Lauderdale, Falcon Heights, Lilydale, Arden Hills, Golden Valley and Hennepin County.

With the youth of Minnesota in the midst of a vaping epidemic and severe lung damage a hot topic across the country, the Golden Valley City Council let the tobacco industry know where it stands in the fight to protect youth from the harms of tobacco. The City Council voted unanimously Oct. 15 on a number of measures aimed at protecting youth, including raising the tobacco sales age to 21, prohibiting the sale of all flavored tobacco products, including menthol, setting a minimum price for previously cheap, flavored cigars and barring Golden Valley pharmacies from holding tobacco licenses. Menthol-, candy- and fruit-flavored tobacco products are attractive to youth, and the tobacco industry uses these flavors to hook a new generation of users, resulting in addiction, disease and death. Eighty percent of youth tobacco users use flavored tobacco. “We all struggle with the impact on businesses, but this is a public health crises,” Golden Valley council member Gillian Rosenquist said. “Gov. (Tim) Walz called on the Legislature to take on these actions. This is truly a need. We are not outliers in this.” Golden Valley is the 51st community in Minnesota to raise the tobacco sales age to 21, with Saint James and Scandia also passing Tobacco 21 on Oct. 15. West Saint Paul raised the age to 21 the previous night. Other communities that have taken the step include Edina, Saint Louis Park, Bloomington, Plymouth, North Mankato, Falcon Heights, Shoreview, Minneapolis, Saint Peter, Richfield, Roseville, Minnetonka, Excelsior, Lauderdale, Hermantown, Brooklyn Center, Mendota Heights, Otter Tail, Pope, Beltrami, Isanti, Olmsted, Wilkin, Stevens, Hennepin, Benton and Wright counties, Eden Prairie, Waseca, Duluth, North Oaks, Bemidji, Robbinsdale, Albert Lea, Arden Hills, Austin, Little Canada, Lilydale, Mankato, New Brighton, Byron, Forest Lake, Braham, Owatonna, Fergus Falls, Mounds View, Saint Anthony Village and Stewartville. New student date survey results released earlier this month show an alarming jump in the rate of teens vaping in Minnesota. According to the 2019 Minnesota Student Survey, one in four Minnesota 11th graders reported using an e-cigarette in the past 30 days. That is a 54 percent increase from the 2016 survey. Overall youth tobacco use had already taken an upward swing in 2017 for the first time in 17 years because of e-cigarette and flavored cigar use. “What Golden Valley has done may very well be the new gold standard in local tobacco control efforts,” Emily Anderson, Program Manager, at the Association for Nonsmokers-Minnesota, said. “The city has decided to address the human and economic costs of tobacco head on by restricting how and where tobacco is sold in their community. There’s no doubt that the changes they’ve made will save lives.” Approximately 95 percent of current adult smokers started before they turned 21. If youth don’t start smoking before the age of 21, they likely never will. Council members thanked fellow member Larry Fonnest for bringing the measures to their attention. “I didn’t know about all the vaping,” council member Joanie Clausen said. “I went from one end of the spectrum to the other. I support this whole ball of wax.” Fonnest said, “Thank you to everyone. This is a topic I’ve felt passionate about for many years. In October of 2004, Golden Valley passed one of the most stringent clean indoor air ordinances, now here we are about to make history. I’m proud of all of us. Thanks to all the organizations who came out.” Golden Valley is the 13th Minnesota community to restrict the sale of flavored tobacco and the 10th to also restrict the sale of menthol. Minneapolis, Saint Paul, Saint Louis Park, Shoreview, Lauderdale, Duluth, Mendota Heights, Robbinsdale, Falcon Heights, Lilydale, Arden Hills and Hennepin County have restricted the sale of flavored tobacco products. Minneapolis, Saint Paul, Duluth, Mendota Heights, Lauderdale, Falcon Heights, Lilydale, Arden Hills and Hennepin County also restrict the sale of menthol tobacco products. It is one of nine communities that has restricted flavors and raised the tobacco sales age to 21. Those communities include Minneapolis, Duluth, Mendota Heights, Lauderdale, Falcon Heights, Lilydale, Arden Hills and Hennepin County. Saint Paul is set to join that group in another week.

Saint Anthony Village, Minn. – Communities in Minnesota continue to work to protect youth from the harms of tobacco, and particularly vaping, by raising the tobacco sales age to 21. Saint Anthony Village took this step on Oct. 8 as the City Council voted unanimously in favor of Tobacco 21, making it the 47th community in Minnesota to do so. Youth e-cigarette use continues to climb. Amid the backdrop of an ongoing national outbreak of severe lung injuries associated with vaping, new survey results released last week show an alarming jump in the rate of teens vaping in Minnesota. According to the 2019 Minnesota Student Survey, one in four Minnesota 11th graders reported using an e-cigarette in the past 30 days. That is a 54 percent increase from the 2016 survey. “We’ve had people in the community asking for this,” council member Randy Stille said. “It’s been evident this is something our residents would like to see. If we can be leaders in helping combat this epidemic, we’re glad to do so.” Several Saint Anthony Village residents spoke during the three-meeting process. Julie Philbrook, a nurse and resident, talked about losing her father and sister-in-law to smoking-related illnesses. She has a teenage daughter and does not want to see her daughter or any other youth from Saint Anthony Village become addicted to tobacco or nicotine. “With the addition of vaping, now people can inhale these chemicals with little detection by teachers and parents,” Philbrook said. “The tell-tale smell of tobacco or marijuana smoke has been replaced with bubble gum and fruit scents.” Ann Trench was one of the residents who first spoke out about the issue, bringing it to the attention of council member Thomas Randle. “I’m very happy to see the city council agreed to raise the tobacco sales age to 21,” Trench said. “I’m especially grateful for Tom Randle’s support. He listened when I brought this to him.”

Minneapolis city leaders recently took an important step to strengthen the city’s existing restriction on the sale of flavored tobacco. All new tobacco shops in Minneapolis now must be at least 2,000 feet from one another. This means that there are fewer places in the city where it would be possible for a new tobacco shop to open and therefore fewer outlets for flavored and menthol tobacco. The new requirement was part of the city’s response to to the proliferation of stores “splitting” after the city council enacted ordinances in 2015 and 2017 that restricted the sale of flavored tobacco and menthol tobacco to adult only tobacco shops. The city’s restriction on menthol, in particular, was met with fervent pushback from the tobacco industry, which claimed that eliminating menthol sales from gas stations and convenience stores would lead to shuttered businesses and lost jobs. In an effort to skirt the restriction, several stores in Minneapolis opted to “split” their businesses in two: one side remained a convenience store selling soda, snacks and prepared foods, while the other side became an adult-only tobacco shop selling menthol and other flavored tobacco products. While these actions largely negated the intended impacts of the ordinance—to reduce the prevalence and appeal of flavored and menthol tobacco—it was technically met the letter of the law. Upon seeing the lengths the tobacco industry would go to to sell their deadly products, Council Member Alondra Cano proposed a moratorium on all new tobacco licenses in order to allow staff time to study the issue and possible solutions to the store splitting problem. City staff later presented several policy options to the council, including the spacing requirement as well as a cap on the total number of tobacco licenses and an updated definition of tobacco shops to further prevent store splitting. ANSR worked closely with NorthPoint Health and Wellness to build support among council members and the community for the proposed ordinance updates. We met with council members and worked with city health staff regarding language, process and next steps. We gathered community including letters of support, emails to council members and testimony at the committee hearing. Ultimately, the council passed the distance requirement in August. While they did not consider the other parts of the proposal at that time, Council Member Cam Gordon did put forward a staff direction to look at further amending the tobacco ordinance in early 2020. Specifically, he asked staff to look at updating the definition of tobacco shops to prevent further splitting of stores and at capping the total number of tobacco licenses in the city.

The landscape for selling tobacco at the Minneapolis airport will look different in the future since the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners voted 6-1 on three significant changes to its tobacco ordinance on Tuesday. The county, which is the tobacco licensing authority for the airport, as well as Mound, Greenfield, St. Bonifacius and Rockford, voted to raise the tobacco sales age to 21, restrict the sale of all flavored tobacco products, including menthol,  and set a minimum price of $3 for cigars. The city of Rogers had previously been licensed by the county but voted in June to license its own tobacco retailers. During a discussion of the proposed changes in the Health and Human Services Committee on June 25, Commissioner Angela Conley said, “I really appreciated the public hearing and all the impassioned pleas for us to really take action and movement on this considering how products are severely advertised in certain stores in impacted communities, specifically black communities and indigenous communities.” Commissioner Jan Callison added, “Really what was decisive for me was getting the results of the Minnesota Student Survey for Mound, which is partly in my jurisdiction, and seeing that for example for suburban Hennepin County the overall rate for 30-days of any tobacco use is 19 percent and in the Mound-Westonka District is 34 percent.” Youth e-cigarette use has increased nearly 50 percent in the past three years, according to the Minnesota Department of Health. Nearly one in five Minnesota High School students currently uses e-cigarettes, according to the 2017 Minnesota Youth Tobacco Survey. Approximately 95 percent of current adult smokers started before they turned 21. If youth don’t start smoking before the age of 21, they likely never will. LaTrisha Vetaw, Health Policy and Advocacy Manager at NorthPoint Health and Wellness Center, Inc., led the team of community members who advocated for the policy changes. “Kudos to Hennepin County for raising the tobacco age to 21, restricting the sale of flavored tobacco including menthol, and raising the price of cheap cigars,” she said. “These very important policies protect future generations from getting hooked on deadly tobacco. The commissioners’ leadership means so much to young people throughout the county.” Hennepin County is the eighth county and 39th community in Minnesota to raise the tobacco sales age to 21.

The Tobacco 21 movement continues to gain ground in Minnesota as New Brighton became the latest community to pass the measure. The New Brighton city council voted unanimously in favor of the ordinance. New Brighton is the 36th community in Minnesota to raise the tobacco sales age to 21. Edina, Saint Louis Park, Bloomington, Plymouth, North Mankato, Falcon Heights, Shoreview, Minneapolis, Saint Peter, Richfield, Roseville, Minnetonka, Excelsior, Lauderdale, Hermantown, Brooklyn Center, Mendota Heights, Otter Tail, Pope, Beltrami, Isanti, Olmsted and Wilkin Counties, Eden Prairie, Waseca, Duluth, North Oaks, Bemidji, Robbinsdale, Albert Lea, Arden Hills, Austin, Little Canada, Lilydale and Mankato. Wilkin County passed Tobacco 21 earlier in the day. “New Brighton should be commended for taking this measure aimed at helping young people never start the deadly habit of tobacco use in the first place,” Katie Engman, Program Director for the Association for Nonsmokers-Minnesota, said. “When I get to high school, I don’t want to see my friends and classmates vaping,” said Annika Fabian, a High View Middle School student during testimony in May. “I don’t want to feel pressured to try it. Tobacco 21 will help keep my generation from getting addicted.”

Little Canada council member Tom Fischer expressed support for raising the tobacco sales age, but he was adamant that his city shouldn’t have to be taking the step. “Both my parents passed away from cancers related from smoking,” Fischer said during the May 8 council meeting. “I couldn’t see across the room for smoke. I detest the idea of smoking. The Tobacco 21 group is amazing. This is 30-plus cities.” Fischer then abstained from voting to make his point as his council colleagues unanimously voted to raise the tobacco sales age in Little Canada to 21 in May. Fischer firmly placed the onus on the state of Minnesota to pass Tobacco 21 at the state level to protect not just youth in Little Canada but throughout the state. “We’ve got 853 cities in our state. We need something bigger,” Fischer said. Local communities continue to raise the sales age even as the state legislature is mulling it over. A Tobacco 21 bill passed the floor of the House and was included in a large Health & Human Services Omnibus bill but was heard in only one committee in the Senate. It was discussed in the HHS conference committee. Curtis Johnson, a Little Canada resident and member of the Roseville Area High School Board, testified in favor of raising the sales age two weeks ago and said he’d like to see it passed at the state level. “As a resident, I’m happy the city has decided to do what’s best for the children,” Johnson said. “This is something that’s been brought forward as a valid state issue, but so many issues start at the local level. Little Canada has joined so many other cities. We need to protect your youth from these products. I look forward to seeing this as a state law.”

Arden Hills took aim at the tobacco industry when the City Council voted unanimously to raise the tobacco sales age to 21 and ban the sale of flavored tobacco on March 25. Caitlin Young, a nursing student at Bethel University said, “I have directly seen the impacts of smoking in ways that many young people have not. I want to stand up for both my peers and future generations to help end tobacco use and advocate for healthier communities.” In addition to joining the Tobacco 21 movement, Arden Hills voted to ban all flavored tobacco products from the city. Menthol-, candy- and fruit-flavored tobacco products are attractive to youth, and the tobacco industry uses these flavors to hook a new generation of users, resulting in addiction, disease and death. Eighty percent of youth tobacco users use flavored tobacco. Arden Hills is the 29th community in Minnesota to raise the tobacco sales age to 21, with the vote coming just hours behind Albert Lea, which became the 28th city earlier in the evening. Edina, Saint Louis Park, Bloomington, Plymouth, North Mankato, Falcon Heights, Shoreview, Minneapolis, Saint Peter, Richfield, Roseville, Minnetonka, Excelsior, Lauderdale, Hermantown, Brooklyn Center, Mendota Heights, Otter Tail, Pope, Beltrami and Isanti Counties, Eden Prairie, Waseca, Duluth, North Oaks, Bemidji, Robbinsdale and Albert Lea have taken this step. “Maybe in passing this, we’ll send a message to our legislators to get on board,” Arden Hills Mayor David Grant said. Youth e-cigarette use has increased nearly 50 percent in the past three years, according to the Minnesota Department of Health. Nearly one in five Minnesota High School students currently uses e-cigarettes, according to the 2017 Minnesota Youth Tobacco Survey. “Arden Hills should be commended for taking these life-saving measures,” Kristen Ackert, Policy and Research Manager at the Association for Nonsmokers-Minnesota, said. “The city has shown its commitment to the health of its residents by taking on bold public health policy initiatives aimed at helping young people never to start the deadly habit of tobacco use in the first place.” Approximately 95 percent of current adult smokers started before they turned 21. If youth don’t start smoking before the age of 21, they likely never will. Council member Steve Scott thanked the youth who attended the hearing and other meetings. “I appreciate you for taking an issue and standing up for it,” he said. “You’re seeing your friends being afflicted by this chemical addiction.” Arden Hills is the 10th Minnesota City to restrict the sale of flavored tobacco and the seventh to restrict the sale of menthol. Minneapolis, Saint Paul, Saint Louis Park, Shoreview, Lauderdale, Duluth, Mendota Heights, Robbinsdale and Falcon Heights have also restricted the sale of flavored tobacco products. Minneapolis, Saint Paul, Duluth, Mendota Heights, Lauderdale and Falcon Heights also restrict the sale of menthol tobacco products.

More than a year ago, the community of Robbinsdale wasn’t quite ready to enact Tobacco 21, but its leaders made a commitment to take another look at it. On March 19, the City Council upheld that commitment and passed Tobacco 21 with a 4-1 vote. “At that time, we weren’t ready to move on T21, but seeing all the other communities around us do it gave us momentum again,” council member Dan Rogan said. “It will really protect our young Robbinsdalians. We hope this is one more city that will help push the state to T21.” Additionally, Robbinsdale voted to restrict the sale of electronic cigarettes to adult-only tobacco. Robbinsdale is the 26th community in Minnesota to raise the tobacco sales age to 21. Edina, Saint Louis Park, Bloomington, Plymouth, North Mankato, Falcon Heights, Shoreview, Minneapolis, Saint Peter, Richfield, Roseville, Minnetonka, Excelsior, Lauderdale, Hermantown, Brooklyn Center, Mendota Heights, Otter Tail, Pope and Beltrami Counties, Eden Prairie, Waseca, Duluth and Bemidji have taken this step. Robbinsdale resident and physician Dr. Emily Bannister previously testified in favor of all the proposed changes to the tobacco ordinance. Bannister said, “The policies you are considering are far more effective at reducing the harms of than anything we can do from within our clinic walls. 18-to-21 year-olds only make up 2 percent of tobacco sales, but are one of the primary suppliers of tobacco to underage youth. Raising the tobacco sales age to 21 and restrict e-cigarettes to adult-only tobacco stores will help eliminate the pipeline of tobacco into our high schools.” Youth e-cigarette use has increased nearly 50 percent in the past three years, according to the Minnesota Department of Health. Nearly one in five Minnesota High School students currently uses e-cigarettes, according to the 2017 Minnesota Youth Tobacco Survey. “Robbinsdale should be commended for taking these life-saving measures,” Emily Anderson, Program Director at the Association for Nonsmokers-Minnesota, said. “The city has shown its commitment to the health of its residents over the past year by taking on bold public health policy initiatives aimed at helping young people never to start the deadly habit of tobacco use in the first place.”

The community of North Oaks might be small, but it came up big when it comes to protecting its youth. North Oaks unanimously voted to raise the tobacco sales age to 21 on March 14. “We’re a small community, but our neighboring communities, like Shoreview, started passing Tobacco 21, so we thought we’d make it illegal for kids here,” Mayor Gregg Nelson said. “It was easy to see vaping was designed to get kids and young adults involved.” North Oaks is the 24th community in Minnesota to raise the tobacco sales age to 21. Edina, Saint Louis Park, Bloomington, Plymouth, North Mankato, Falcon Heights, Shoreview, Minneapolis, Saint Peter, Richfield, Roseville, Minnetonka, Excelsior, Lauderdale, Hermantown, Brooklyn Center, Mendota Heights, Otter Tail, Pope and Beltrami Counties, Eden Prairie, Waseca and Duluth have taken this step. Youth e-cigarette use has increased nearly 50 percent in the past three years, according to the Minnesota Department of Health. Nearly one in five Minnesota High School students currently uses e-cigarettes, according to the 2017 Minnesota Youth Tobacco Survey. “It is great that North Oaks is putting the health of their kids first,” said Katie Engman, program director at the Association for Nonsmokers-Minnesota. “North Oaks is joining 23 other Minnesota communities in protecting its residents from the harms of tobacco, including e-cigarettes. This is a great step, and we hope many other cities and the state will follow.”

By Betsy Brock, Research Director Altria, the maker of Marlboro cigarettes, recently purchased a stake in JUUL, the company that manufactures the wildly popular e-cigarette with the same name. JUUL controls approximately 70 percent of the e-cigarette market. The company started in 2015 and is valued at $38 billion. JUUL’s stated mission is to “improve the lives of the world’s one billion smokers by eliminating cigarettes.” The company’s merger with Altria, the country’s largest cigarette company, calls this mission into question. It is hard to understand how a company can strive to eliminate cigarettes from the marketplace while partnering with a company that controls the largest cigarette market share in the U.S. Altria paid $12.8 billion for a 35 percent ownership stake in JUUL. As a part of this agreement, Altria agreed to adopt and support the JUUL mission, provide JUUL with premier tobacco product retail shelf space, allow JUUL to communicate with consumers via cigarette pack inserts and marketing databases, allow JUUL to remain in control, apply logistics and distribution experience to help JUUL, and provide funds that benefit JUUL employees and investors. This agreement means JUUL will have access to Altria’s vast and substantial marketing networks. Altria typically controls the most valuable and noticeable shelf space behind convenience store cash registers on the so-called tobacco “power wall.” Further, Altria has a consumer marketing database with an estimated 25 million names. JUUL is taking other steps to expand their reach. They recently hired a full-time lobbyist who is based in Minnesota. The lobbyist who has extensive experience lobbying for the medical device industry will lead lobbying efforts in Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Despite JUUL’s success, the company does face uncertainty. In 2018, the FDA opened an investigation into JUUL. The FDA ordered JUUL to turn over company marketing and scientific reports in order to determine if JUUL targets youth with marketing. In mid-September, the FDA took it one step further. The FDA put JUUL and four other e-cigarette companies on notice with 60 days to prove they have the systems in place to ensure that young people can’t access these products. Failure to do so could result in the removal of these products from the market. JUUL’s partnership with Altria likely means JUUL will have access to Altria’s vast legal expertise and resources. Altria is known for vigorously pursuing legal battles. The company is not afraid to challenge the federal government. It is hard to know what this could mean for the FDA’s planned JUUL crackdown or for the future of JUUL itself.

The Eden Prairie City Council took a big step toward protecting youth from the harms of tobacco when it voted 3-1 to raise the tobacco sales age to 21 on Dec. 4, 2018. “When we talk about tobacco-related costs, we can just talk about the small profits loss to several businesses,” said council member Ron Case. “The real cost is the tremendous toll to families of kids who started to smoke.” Eden Prairie is the 19th community in Minnesota to raise the tobacco sales age to 21. Edina, Saint Louis Park, Bloomington, Plymouth, North Mankato, Falcon Heights, Shoreview, Minneapolis, Saint Peter, Richfield, Roseville, Minnetonka, Excelsior, Lauderdale, Hermantown, Brooklyn Center, Mendota Heights and Otter Tail County have taken this step. “I’m proud that you, our community leaders, are doing what it takes to protect our children from dangerous products right now,” said Eden Prairie resident Donna Shaked, in commending the city council. “I strongly believe one of the most effective ways to do it is by raising the legal tobacco sales age from 18 to 21. Our kids’ future depends on it.” Many community members showed up in support of this life-saving ordinance. Several community members spoke during the public hearing a couple of weeks ago and again Tuesday night. They urged the council to support the ordinance to prevent another generation from picking up a lifelong deadly addiction. Youth e-cigarette use has increased nearly 50 percent in the past three years, according to the Minnesota Department of Health. Nearly one in five Minnesota High School students currently uses e-cigarettes, according to the 2017 Minnesota Youth Tobacco Survey.