A national anti-smoking group is pumping more than $1 million into the City Council’s battle over flavored cigarettes and e-cigs — hoping to ride the growing wave of sentiment against them.
The DC-based Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids last week launched a local ad blitz to try to convince council members that they should vote for two bills which would ban menthol cigarettes as well as e-cigs with flavors from bubble gum to cotton candy.
The council is currently nearly split over the proposals. But anti-smoking advocates have been buoyed by what looks like a turning tide in favor of bans.
On Wednesday, Michigan became the nation’s first state to outlaw flavored e-cigs, citing the rash of teens hospitalized across the country with vaping-related illnesses.
The next day, New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson came out against flavored e-cigarettes — while the chairman of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy demanded that the FDA take “appropriate enforcement action’’ against leading e-cig maker Juul for what he called misleading advertising.
The lobbying group Tobacco Free is now pushing the City Council to pass bans by the end of the year. The proposed legislation was introduced in January.
“We are at a critical juncture in our nation’s public health history,’’ said Matthew Meyers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, in a statement.
The City Council bills would “have an enormous impact on the effort to reduce the number of people who die from tobacco use, tackle the youth e-cigarette epidemic, significantly reduce the number of young people who become addicted, and dramatically reduce the death toll of tobacco on New York City’s African-American population.”
Councilman Fernando Cabrera (D-Bronx) authored the bill to ban menthol cigarettes As of Friday, 25 of the city’s 51 council members had agreed to sign it.
Meanwhile, 23 council members currently back the proposed ban on flavored e-cigarettes by Councilman Mark Levine (D-Manhattan).
The lobbying group began circulating its pro-ban ads last week in local newspapers and on Facebook, Twitter and other social-media Web sites.
One ad features a photo of bubble gum with the caption, “Addiction now in bubble gum flavor.” The Internet ad includes a link to click for users to “tell the City Council to protect kids and restrict tobacco flavors.”
The group got a boost when Johnson, who is admittedly currently using a Juul in a bid to beat a decade-old smoking habit, became the latest pol to back Levine’s anti-vaping legislation.
“I’m not proud of my Juul, but it’s a bridge hopefully for me to ultimately be totally nicotine-free,” Johnson told NY1 while confirming his support for the bill.
Johnson holds great influence with many council members, so his support could play a big role in Levine’s legislation ultimately getting passed.
Johnson told The Post through a rep that he’s still reviewing Cabrera’s bill.
Cabrera’s proposal has remained in limbo in part because civil-rights activist Al Sharpton opposes it.
Sharpton, who wields significant pull with many council members, has expressed concern that banning menthol-flavored cigarettes could create “another Eric Garner situation” because the legislation fails to address how cops would enforce such a law.
“Eric Garner was killed during an encounter selling loosies,” Sharpton said in January, referring to the Staten Island man who died in 2014 after being taken down by a cop amid a dispute over selling illegal smokes.
Sharpton has butted heads over the proposed ban with the NAACP, which blames menthol tobacco for being a leading cause of African-Americans getting hooked on smoking.
“Strong and serious actions need to be taken around certain flavored products, which is why we already stopped selling our non-tobacco/non-menthol based JUULpods to traditional retail stores and are aggressively fighting against counterfeit and compatible flavored products which can appeal to youth and can be made with unknown ingredients, under unknown quality and manufacturing standards,” a Juul spokesman said in a statement.
“We believe strongly that menthol-based products, including mint, should be available at retail alongside tobacco and menthol-based cigarettes.”