Dinkins joins the fray of vaping, menthol debate amid racial concerns

Dinkins joins the fray of vaping, menthol debate amid racial concerns

By Sally Goldenberg
Politico
10/15/2019

David Dinkins, New York City’s only black mayor, is wading into deliberations over regulating flavored nicotine products — a national debate that has put local politicians at the uncomfortable nexus of public health and racial concerns.

The 92-year-old former mayor will announce his support for two City Council bills to ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes and regular menthol cigarettes ahead of a rally at City Hall Tuesday morning.

“For decades, communities of color — and especially our children — have been targeted by the aggressive marketing campaigns of tobacco companies looking to hook us on nicotine for life,” Dinkins said in a statement provided to POLITICO.

Those same tobacco companies are now investing in e-cigarettes “because of their high nicotine content and popularity amongst young people,” he said. He blamed the products for the “new epidemic of critically sickened youth," including a 17-year-old from the Bronx who died of a vaping-related illness on Oct. 4.

State and city officials are investigating, and have not disclosed what products the teen was vaping. One published report said he was using cartridges containing THC, a main ingredient in marijuana.

“I love kids. As the statement says, this is particularly bad for children,” Dinkins said in a follow-up interview Monday. “What made me get involved? That’s what.”

He said he couldn’t recall if anyone asked for his support, which provides political cover for Council Speaker Corey Johnson and others concerned about opposition to the proposed menthol ban from Al Sharpton, one of the country’s most outspoken black activists. “I don’t remember. When you get to be my age, you won’t remember,” Dinkins said.

He plans to submit his written statement ahead of the rally, which coincides with the 10-year anniversary of a citywide ban on flavored tobacco. It’s being hosted by Flavors Hook Kids NYC, a campaign spearheaded by a national anti-tobacco outfit that receives much of its funding from another former New York City mayor, Michael Bloomberg.

Sharpton has said the Council’s proposed ban on menthol cigarettes would criminalize a product popular amongst black people. In an interview Monday, he invoked the NYPD killing of an unarmed black man, Eric Garner, who was selling loose cigarettes on Staten Island at the time of his death in 2014.

“They’re not addressing the issue that we raised,” Sharpton said. “It’s not the ban. The issue is, where in the bills do we deal with the criminal justice fallout and that we don’t end up with another Eric Garner? And they avoid that issue.”

“Nobody’s asking Corey about stop and frisk, and enforcement, and why they’re supporting legalizing marijuana,” he added. “You try to go into First Baptist Church and say, ‘Grandma you can’t smoke your Newport anymore but junior can smoke a joint.’ I don’t think that’s going to sell in the churches I go to.”

Dinkins said he agrees with Sharpton’s concerns, but is more worried about health consequences.

As of last Tuesday, 1,299 vaping-related lung injury cases have been reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC has confirmed 26 deaths in 21 states from patients with a history of using e-cigarettes or other vaping products. The matter led President Donald Trump to break with many conservatives in his party and announce a ban on all non-tobacco-flavored e-cigarettes.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo also moved to ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes, but he initially excluded menthol, which Dinkins called “the greatest weapon in special interest tobacco’s war against our health” because “they are easy to start smoking and harder to quit.” Cuomo has since said he intends to add menthol to the regulation, though the emergency ban has been blocked in court.

Dinkins said he smoked menthol and non-menthol cigarettes alike after joining the Marines in the 1940s, and quit several years later.

Menthol cigarettes were exempt from a national ban on flavored cigarettes in 2009.

“New York City cannot wait any longer for Congress or New York State to close the deadly menthol loophole,” Dinkins said in his statement. “The well-being of our most vulnerable New Yorkers hinges on leaders taking a stand against special interest tobacco at this critical moment.”

One Council bill would ban all flavored e-cigarettes, including menthol. So far it has 26 sponsors, the minimum needed to pass. Another measure, which has 32 backers, would prohibit regular menthol cigarettes.

“We’ve learned the hard lesson about the danger of leaving menthol on the market,” e-cigarette bill sponsor Mark Levine said. “Even the Trump administration includes this flavor in its proposed vaping ban. But waiting for an unreliable and unstable president to act is not an option.”

Johnson, who plans to run for mayor in 2021, has openly talked about using a mint-flavored Juul to wean himself off of cigarettes this year. Nevertheless, last month he declared his support for outlawing flavored e-cigarettes because he said they “are being targeted towards children in a way that it becomes a gateway to real cigarettes if you’re young enough.”

“I’m not proud of my Juul, but, you know, it’s a bridge hopefully for me to ultimately be totally nicotine free,” he said.

Months after Sharpton made his opposition known, the menthol ban received the backing of Hazel Dukes of the NAACP, who wrote Johnson a letter in September urging him to support it.

“Every day the menthol loophole is left open, dozens more addicts are made in our city — and they’re mostly black and brown,” she wrote.

“Speaker Johnson is concerned about the health impacts of menthol flavors in tobacco products and is working diligently with stakeholders to best address this major problem,” his spokesperson Jennifer Fermino said. “He has been meeting with the NAACP along with other stakeholders and expects to announce something soon.”