WNEM: Parents, advocates push for ban on flavored tobacco products
“Flavors are for ice cream, not tobacco.”
By: Riley Connell
LANSING, Mich. (WILX) - Cherry, grape and cotton candy; they’re flavors that belong in sweet treats, but kids today are getting their fill with E-cigarettes.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, vape sales are up 1659% since 2020. Now, a group of parents, educators and doctors are trying to hold the companies that sell those products accountable.
“It’s hard to use the bathroom at school,” said youth advocate Brooke Bursey. “They have installed smoke detectors in the bathrooms, also density detectors within the school, just trying to keep these vapes out of the school system.”
Bursey just turned 18 years old, but she said the first time she witnessed someone her age using a tobacco product was in middle school.
“My friends just became so addicted, and I try to get them to quit every day,” she told News 10.
Bursey and other advocates with the Michigan-based alliance Keep MI Kids Tobacco Free are fighting for stronger tobacco sale protections as vaping continues to grow in popularity among kids and teens.
The group is spreading its message in a nontraditional way, passing out free ice cream to lawmakers outside the State Capitol and other passersby. Each package is marked with a sticker that reads, “Flavors are for ice cream, not tobacco,” a nod to the fruity, attractive flavors of E-cigarettes.
Keep MI Kids Tobacco Free Co-Chair and Michigan Pediatrician Dr. Brittany Tayler said they parked their ice cream truck on Capitol Ave. because it’s time to start holding tobacco companies accountable.
“We actually just had a recent survey that came out from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services that showed that almost 98% of adolescents that were surveyed felt that they could go in and just buy a tobacco product when they went into the store,” Tayler said.
From feeling comfortable buying in-store to being able to purchase online, a concerned Mid-Michigan parent, who chose to stay anonymous, recently brought an online vape seller website to News 10′s attention after her 7th-grader purchased a vape product with no required age verification.
After showing the website to parent advocate Debbie Wertz, she was in disbelief.
“How is that legal?” she said. “I just — how is this not being mandated.”
Wertz is both a parent and grandparent whose had experience helping her loved ones quit vaping. She’s hoping the Keep MI Kids Tobacco Free ice cream truck drop-in will influence state lawmakers to pass a package of tobacco protection bills. The proposed laws would ban the sale of all flavored tobacco products and tax E-cigarettes and vapes containing nicotine for the first time.
During a U.S. Senate committee hearing Wednesday, senators criticized top health and law enforcement officers for not doing more to stop the rise in illegal electronic cigarettes. For its part, vaping companies say they don’t market their products to underaged children, instead saying many illegal products come from overseas operators like China.
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