BILLS LOOK TO CURB YOUTH VAPING

(AUSTIN) — With the number of minors using e-cigarettes rising and the short and long-term effects of the habit unclear, the Senate this week passed three bills intended to make it harder for companies to encourage kids to buy and use these products. Use of nicotine-laced e-cigarettes and other vaping paraphernalia is on the rise among minors, with the Centers for Disease Control saying that 1.6 million public school students vape, including almost half a million middle schoolers. While the carcinogenic effects of e-cigarette use aren’t yet known, the risks of nicotine use are well established and include high blood pressure, cardiac disease, and an increased chance of blood clots. A single e-cigarette cartridge can contain as much nicotine as two packs of cigarettes.

Houston Senator Molly Cook said that young people are using e-cigarettes at increasing rates as vendors target them with advertisements.

Some companies seem to be eager to add young customers to their clientele. Harkening back to the days of Joe Camel, Houston Senator Molly Cook said Thursday that e-cigarette makers and vendors use kid-appealing techniques to entice minors into picking up the habit. “Parents across my district and throughout the state feel helpless when these smoke shops use lucrative marketing tactics to target students, especially considering that e-cigarettes are becoming increasingly popular among minors,” said Cook. Her bill, SB 1313, would ban smoke shops and other vendors from using images appealing to minors in their logos, signage, or other posted advertisements. Violators of this law would face class B misdemeanor charges. “It is very disturbing on many fronts how children are being marketed to for profit without concern for their well-being,” said bill co-author and McKinney Senator Angela Paxton.

Cook also won passage of a second bill Thursday that would close loopholes intended to restrict tobacco adverting but are silent on e-cigarettes. “Although Texas law prohibits the advertisement of cigarettes and tobacco products within 1000 feet of church or a school, e-cigarette advertisements are not included in this prohibition,” she said. Her bill, SB 1316, would fix that by adding them to the prohibition.

These are only two of three bills passed by the Senate this week aimed at keeping kids from picking up an e-cigarette habit. On Monday, the Senate approved a bill that would ban the sale of not only e-cigarettes, but any tobacco product within 1000 feet of a church or a school. “This bill is a proximity based prevention to hopefully decrease health effects and decrease the ease of acquiring these products,” said SB 464 author and New Braunfels Senator Donna Campbell.

Also Thursday, the Senate approved a measure that would create a dedicated division of homeland security within the Department of Public Safety. Bill author and Flower Mound Senator Tan Parker says that today, intelligence gathering and other preventative state security measures are spread across multiple agencies at the state, local, and federal level. This complicates intelligence sharing and could risk critical information falling through the cracks. “Under this bill, the homeland security division will coordinate multiagency and multijurisdictional efforts, ensuring that federal, state, local, and private stakeholders work in unison,” said Parker. The bill, SB 36, would centralize the process for collection, analysis, and distributing intelligence related to border security and critical infrastructure. “By bringing these functions together, we can strengthen our overall preparedness and response, reduce duplication of efforts, and ensure taxpayer dollars are always spent wisely,” said Parker. Other duties of the proposed division would be to regularly assess the vulnerability of critical infrastructure facilities related to energy, communications, transportation, and water. They would also develop plans for dealing with threats and could conduct training operations with local and state law enforcement to maximize readiness in the event of an attack or natural disaster.

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