Could Santa Ana ban flavored tobacco sales?

Santa Ana is considering banning the sale of flavored tobacco products in an effort to protect younger residents from harmful health effects.

Council members supported the proposal on Tuesday night, but chose to continue the item to a later date after realizing that the new law needed some fleshing out. In particular, Mayor Vicente Sarmiento said that he wants to ensure that the ordinance does not inadvertently discriminate against communities that use flavored tobacco products as part of their cultural traditions, such as hookah.

“I think there’s a way that we can be respectful and make sure that we protect kids,” Sarmiento said. “... The vaping has been off the charts harmful to our youth.”

The potential law is being discussed as local governments, the state and federal government consider how to deal with flavored tobacco use in young adults. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced earlier this year efforts to ban menthol in cigarettes and flavored cigars to reduce addiction, death and “youth experimentation.” Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, with 16 million people living with a disease caused by smoking.

In 2020, California approved a law banning retail sales of flavored tobacco. But earlier this year, the law was placed on hold after a referendum backed by the tobacco industry qualified for the November 2022 ballot, when California voters will decide the fate of the law.

In 2019, Laguna Niguel was the first Orange County city to ban flavored electronic cigarette products.

During the council meeting, several other council members supported Sarmiento’s stance.

“I want to see us keep tobacco out of the hands of children by any means necessary, but I also want to respect peoples’ cultures and traditions,” Councilman Johnathan Hernandez said.

Councilwoman Nelida Mendoza, who proposed the ordinance, said that city staff needs to look into “the hookah issue.”

In nearby Los Angeles, hookah business owners rose up in protest in June as city officials considered banning flavored tobacco sales. West Hollywood banned flavored tobacco sales in February, except shisha tobacco, the product smoked in hookahs.

A few spoke out against a potential ban on hookah tobacco during the public comment section of the Santa Ana council meeting.

“Before you ban the 1,000-year cultural tradition of hookah that is practiced by Middle Easterners, Armenians, Turks, Indians, North Africans and other minority groups, please understand the facts,” said Rima Khoury, general counsel for Fumari — a hookah tobacco manufacturer. “Hookah is not the problem with youth. There is no teen hookah epidemic. Hookahs are generally 3 feet tall. They’re very hard to conceal in your backpack or in your pocket. They take 20 to 30 minutes to set up. So kids aren’t smoking hookahs in the bathroom during recess.”

Khoury, who is also a founding member of the National Hookah Community Assn., said that as a Palestinian American, she has a hookah in her home.

“And it’s offered to guests as a sign of hospitality and respect like it was hundreds of years ago by sultans and kings,” she said.

George Johnson, another founding member of the National Hookah Community Assn., echoed some of Khoury’s comments, pointing out that kids are not smoking hookahs on school campuses.

“I stand firmly with my community and the Middle Eastern community that I’ve been serving for 20 years,” Johnson said. “We seem to be collateral damage to a youth epidemic that we didn’t cause and we’re not part of.”

Councilman Phil Bacerra said that while he’s proud of the council’s concerns with inclusiveness, the subject is a matter of life and death, and he put forward a motion to approve the item as an urgency ordinance, which would put it into effect immediately.

However, he did not receive any support from the rest of the council.

Councilwoman Thai Viet Phan then proposed that the city should explore whether tobacco retailers could tighten their security, similar to how local cannabis businesses operate, rather than banning flavored tobacco products to keep them out of the hands of kids and teenagers.

The city will now look into the issues raised by Sarmiento and Phan.

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