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LOS ANGELES (CNS)-The City of Los Angeles Attorney Mike Fair urged the city council on Thursday to ban the sale of all flavored tobacco, including waterpipes, instead of the current draft law that excludes waterpipes from the ban.

The Los Angeles City Council directed the city’s attorney on June 16 to draft a decree banning the sale of flavored tobacco and menthol cigarettes in the city, but exempting waterpipe tobacco products in existing smoking lounges.

"A total ban on the sale of all flavored tobacco products in Los Angeles, including flavored hookahs, may save lives," Fair said. He said that 3.6 million children across the country are smoking e-cigarettes, which he calls the "gateway" to ordinary cigarettes.

"Child-friendly tastes are driving the popularity of e-cigarettes among young people. Waterpipes also have various sweet flavors to attract children. I call on the city council to include the sale of flavored waterpipes in this proposed ban. No exemption will work. Enough to protect public health," he said.

Feuer's office cited a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which reported that waterpipe smoke contains some of the same harmful chemicals as cigarettes, including nicotine, tar, and carbon monoxide. He pointed out that in a one-hour hookah session, people inhale 100-200 times as much smoke as a cigarette.

Primo Castro, director of government relations for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, said next to Fur on Thursday: "Tobacco use accounts for nearly one-third of all cancer deaths in California." He called the law "a starting point." , But urged council members to "swiftly approve and pass a comprehensive decree to terminate the sale of all flavored tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, cigars, menthol cigarettes and flavored waterpipe products."

According to the proposed decree submitted by the City Attorney’s Office to the City Council this week, existing smoking lounges will be able to sell waterpipe products for on-site or off-site consumption, but the city’s 4,500 tobacco retail stores will be banned from selling flavored tobacco. Including hookah tobacco.

Congressman Monica Rodriguez moved to amend the original statutory requirements to allow the sale of hookah products for off-site consumption and on-site consumption in lounges. She said she was worried about the impact on small business owners. It also relies on the sale of hookah products for off-site activities.

"This is an adult activity, so young people are not allowed to come in contact with these places," she said. She proposed an amendment to exempt the sale of water pipes, which are tobacco used for water pipes.

The amendment was passed with 8 votes in favor and 6 votes against, and was passed by a narrow margin. At that time, the city council faced a request from the National Waterpipe Community Association, asking the city to exempt waterpipe from the regulations, saying that waterpipe is a cultural tradition.

Arnie Abramyan, chairman of the National Waterpipe Community Association, convened a meeting of the city council in June to urge members of the city council to exempt waterpipe from the potential decree.

"Many small immigrant business owners—Armenians, Lebanese, Persians, Egyptians, and all Middle Easterners—will have more than 1,000 families going out of business...respect our culture and respect our small immigrant businesses," he said.

At the city council meeting on June 16, Armenian councillor Paul Krekorian tried to refute the argument that hookah is a cultural tradition.

"There have been a lot of discussions... Regarding waterpipe and its cultural significance to some immigrant communities, I have to say that this controversy bothers me because I have never smoked waterpipe; my family, my Armenian family , Don’t smoke hookah. Armenian culture is defined by its music, art, literature and beliefs...it is not defined by hookah,” Krekorian said at the conference.

"In my opinion, the way to protect Armenian culture...is not to allow young Armenians to die prematurely due to smoking-related deaths."

The Los Angeles City Council originally planned to add an exemption to the ban on menthol cigarettes, but three black councillors, Mark Ridley-Thomas, Marqueece Harris-Dawson, and Curren Price, proposed an amendment to remove the exemption for menthol cigarettes. The high percentage of blacks who smoke menthol cigarettes is cited. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the tobacco industry "has actively promoted menthol products to young people and African Americans, especially in urban communities." The amendment passed with 14 votes in favor and 1 absent.

"History has clearly shown us the harmful effects of menthol cigarettes on the African American community. We have a responsibility to prevent the recurrence of this racial injustice and health inequality," Ridley Thomas said at a city council meeting.

Assemblyman Mitch O'Farrell initiated the procedure in a motion in November 2018. He said he opposed the exemption of waterpipe retail and considered it a double standard because the city council did not exempt menthol cigarettes.

"If we want to allow the retail of other products, how can we conscientiously prohibit other things, such as the sale of menthol cigarettes. I just think this is a double standard," he said.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously in October 2019 to pass a decree banning flavored tobacco products, including menthol, and called on Governor Gavin Newsom to pass a statewide e-cigarette ban.

On August 28, California became the second state after Massachusetts to pass statewide sales restrictions on flavored tobacco products. Tobacco manufacturers and retailers have challenged many laws and regulations, but so far, in all cases, courts have supported restrictions on the sale of flavored tobacco products, holding that these restrictions are constitutional and consistent with the Tobacco Control Act.

Tobacco use is the number one preventable killer in the United States, causing more deaths than deaths due to alcohol, AIDS, car accidents, illegal drugs, murder, and suicide combined.

Every day, thousands of young people will use tobacco products for the first time, and many of them will be flavored. In California alone, 36.5% of high school students report using tobacco products. According to data from the California Attorney General’s Office, 86.4% of them reported using flavored products. The office submitted a briefing to the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit to support the Los Angeles County ban on the sale of flavored tobacco products.