A ban on the sale of flavored nicotine products in suburban Cook County is being introduced this week, an expansion of efforts to curb vaping among youth in particular.
Commissioner Donna Miller plans to introduce the ban at Thursday’s Cook County Board meeting. It bars retailers — limited to those in unincorporated areas of the county — from selling “any flavored nicotine product,” including menthol, fruit, candy, dessert or alcohol flavors but “not the taste or aroma of tobacco,” according to the draft ordinance.
If passed, the proposal would take effect immediately and give the sheriff the power to “conduct unannounced inspections” on retailers or vending machine operators selling nicotine products. Violators would be subject “to a fine of not less than $1,000 nor more than $5,000 for each offense.”
Displaying any flavored nicotine products would garner a $500 fine for a first offense and could result in the loss of a retailer’s license for more than three violations within a 12-month period.
The Illinois Retail Merchants Association, which has typically pushed back on such restrictions, did not immediately respond to a request for comment, though Miller said Thursday she expected resistance.
“This will help Cook County join other jurisdictions, such as the city of Chicago, Los Angeles County, and the state of Massachusetts, California, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island, that have enacted statewide flavored tobacco and vape product bans in fighting the attack on our youth and young adults,” Miller said at a Wednesday press conference. Flavored e-cigarettes are “hooking a whole new generation on nicotine, putting millions of kids and young adults at risk, and threatening decades of progress in reducing youth tobacco use.”
Federal officials banned the sale of most flavored e-cigarettes with the aim of reversing the tide of youth vaping in 2020, but the measure had loopholes that allowed companies to sell disposable, pre-charged and flavored e-cigarettes or vape “tanks” and was considered ineffective.
Since 2014, e-cigarettes have been the most common tobacco products used by middle and high school aged youth, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A youth survey released by the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration in October found 14% of high school students and more than 3% of middle school children reported vaping in the prior 30 days.
Dr. Lamar Hasbrouck, chief operating officer of the Cook County Department of Public Health, said he supported the proposal, in part because e-cigarette use among youth “remains an ongoing public health concern.” Nicotine exposure during adolescence can harm brain development, Hasbrouck continued, affecting learning, attention, mood and impulse control. In Black and brown communities, he said, people are “predatorily targeted by the tobacco industry by marketing (and) price promotions.”
Chicago banned the sale of flavored e-cigarettes in September 2020, on top of other restrictions on nicotine and tobacco products, like a ban on vaping indoors and a tax on e-cigarettes of $1.50 per unit and $1.20 per fluid milliliter of liquid. Suburban retailers and shoppers told the Tribune in November that the city’s ban pushed customers their way. Some considered the ordinance watered down because it did not address the sale of menthol-flavored traditional cigarettes.
Sheriff Tom Dart said vaping is “literally the No.-1 thing” his high school daughters talk about.
“They talk about the kids who are in stalls, they’re vaping, they seem to feel not only that it’s easier to get away with than smoking cigarettes were, but they also don’t in any way understand what this is leading to,” he said. The county should “stop it and do it now before we have yet another generation who is hopelessly addicted” to nicotine.
The sheriff’s office already has a unit that looks for unstamped cigarettes and liquor, Dart said, and flavored vape sales would just be another item on the checklist if the ordinance passed. “It’s not going to be a lot of heavy lifting on our part, and our hope is that the responsible ones are just going to stop doing it,” he said. “Usually they get the memo.”
Miller could not say what the impact on county revenues would be. Taxes on cigarettes and other tobacco products are one of the county’s larger sources of income outside sales and property taxes. Cook county collected an average of about $125 million per year in cigarette and “other tobacco product” taxes between 2019 and 2021 according to its most recent budget. Officials project those revenues will continue to fall in the out-years. “We’re going to take a look at that,” Miller said.
Last month, Juul Labs agreed to settle a lawsuit launched by the city of Chicago over claims the company violated the city’s municipal code by “marketing JUUL Products to youth” and “engaging in inadequate age verification,” among other complaints. This month, the state of Illinois announced a $67 million payout from Juul as part of a multistate settlement.
When the $23.8 million settlement was announced, a Juul spokesperson said the company was focusing on adults who wanted to quit traditional cigarettes “while combating underage use of our products.”
