Michigan lags far behind in tobacco prevention, action needed to protect kids from lifetime of addiction

Keep MI Kids Tobacco Free Alliance presenting Thursday before Senate Regulatory Affairs Committee

WHAT: Keep MI Kids Tobacco Free Alliance presentation before the Senate Committee on Regulatory Affairs on the toll that tobacco usage, including e-cigarettes, is having on the health of Michigan’s residents, especially impressionable youth.

WHO: Jodi Radke, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids regional director, Alliance co-chair

Dr. Brittany Tayler, pediatrician and Alliance co-chair

Minou Jones, chair of the Detroit Wayne Oakland Tobacco Free Coalition

WHEN: Thursday, June 20, 2024 at 12:00 p.m.

WHERE: Binsfeld Office Building, 201 Townsend Street, Lansing, MI (Room 1100)

Virtual option available - visit senate.michigan.gov for details

WHY: Michigan ranks dead last in the nation in funding of tobacco prevention programs, only allocating 1.6% of what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends. Smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death and disease in Michigan and is responsible for more than 16,000 deaths per year. In addition, youth e-cigarette use remains a critical problem in Michigan, with flavored e-cigarette sales skyrocketing by more than 600% since February 2020. The 2023 MI Youth Tobacco survey showed that at least 95% of Michigan high school students who attempted to purchase e-cigarettes were able to do so despite being underage.

The Keep MI Kids Tobacco Free Alliance is urging policymakers to advance the comprehensive tobacco prevention legislative package (Senate Bills 647-654) introduced in November in the Michigan Senate. The package includes Senate Bill 649 and 650, sponsored by Sen. John Cherry, that would end the sale of flavored e-cigarettes and menthol-flavored cigarettes. Other components of the bill package include taxing e-cigarettes and vaping products in Michigan for the first time, increasing tobacco taxes with proceeds dedicated to efforts to reduce tobacco use among youth, requiring tobacco retailers to have a license, restoring local control empowering cities to pass stronger tobacco prevention measures if they so choose, and repealing ineffective policies that punish kids for tobacco purchase, use and possession.

Contact: Laura Biehl, Resch Strategies, 248-921-5008, laura@reschstrategies.com

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