New York, NY – By voting “yes” on Proposition 31, Californians have taken a big step toward ending the nation’s teen vaping epidemic.
For years the tobacco industry has preyed on young people, spending hundreds of millions of dollars to market candied-flavored products that are a known gateway to a lifetime of tobacco use, which is one of the leading contributors to disease and death across the U.S.
After the state legislature banned flavored products, the tobacco industry pushed this deceptive referendum that aimed for a “no” vote, but their cynical effort failed.
More than 200 public health and community organizations endorsed Proposition 31, including the American Lung Association and American Heart Association. I will continue to strongly support their efforts to protect the health and safety of children across the country, by taking on a tobacco industry that is shamelessly seeking profits by endangering children.
The vote in California is a major victory in that fight, and it shows that with enough organization and campaign support, the tobacco industry can be beaten.
About Bloomberg Philanthropies:
Mike Bloomberg has been a leader in the tobacco control movement for more than 20 years. In 2019, Mike opened a new phase in his tobacco control efforts with Protect Kids: Fight Flavored E-Cigarettes, a $160 million initiative to end the youth e-cigarette epidemic by banning the sale of flavored tobacco products. Previously, as Mayor of New York City, Mike secured the passage of one of nation’s first smoke-free air laws, a law that contributed to a three-year increase in average life expectancy in New York City a decade after its passage, outpacing national trends. Since 2007, the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use, a Bloomberg Philanthropies program, has led tobacco control efforts across the world; today, 65 percent of the global population (5 billion people) lives in a country that has adopted a life-saving, tobacco control policy, up from 15 percent since the initiative started.
Media Contact:
Jean Weinberg
jean@bloomberg.org