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03/19/2024 02:53 AM
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?chamber=H&SPick=20190&cosponId=30352
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House of Representatives
Session of 2019 - 2020 Regular Session

MEMORANDUM

Posted: September 18, 2019 04:35 PM
From: Representative Eddie Day Pashinski
To: All House members
Subject: Banning Flavored E-Cigarettes
 
Due to the dramatic rise in vaping and e-cigarette usage among middle school aged children across our Commonwealth, I plan to introduce legislation that would ban flavored e-cigarettes that have become popular among young users in Pennsylvania.

Although these products are widely viewed as much safer than normal tobacco products and are used by many to help them quit smoking, they are now being used as a gateway for younger users to develop nicotine dependencies.

Unfortunately, the potential good that e-cigarettes provide for those smokers that want to quit smoking has turned into a financial windfall for e-cigarette companies by selling special flavors, like bubble-gum, Captain Crunch and cotton candy, designed to attract and appeal to children.

No matter how it’s delivered, nicotine is especially harmful for youth and young adults. Period. Their brains are not yet fully developed and are more vulnerable to developing nicotine dependencies. Still, more and more young people are using these products. A 2018 survey found that more than 1 in 5 U.S. high schoolers and, alarmingly, more than 1 in 20 U.S. middle schoolers use e-cigarettes. When we look at the pervasiveness of flavored e-cigarette products, especially in their appeal to younger people, it’s not hard to tell why we see such high usage of these products by our youth.

To address this problem, more and more local and state governments have issued bans on flavored e-cigarettes. These include New York State who issued a ban on flavored e-cigarettes in September 2019, joining the state of Michigan and over 220 localities in doing so. If passed, my legislation would put Pennsylvania on the right side of history by joining other state and local governments by banning flavored e-cigarette products in Pennsylvania.

Please join me in co-sponsoring this legislation to help decrease the amount of young people consuming these potentially life-altering – and most certainly unhealthy – products.



Introduced as HB1994