‘Social justice issue’: Kansas City officials try to ban flavored tobacco, fall short
An effort to ban flavored tobacco and vape products in Kansas City, meant to improve public health in predominantly Black neighborhoods, failed a City Council committee vote Wednesday.
Councilwomen Melissa Robinson and Ryana Parks-Shaw, who championed the legislation, said it was an issue of both public health and racial reconciliation. Flavored tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes, they said, disproportionately harm communities of color and young people.
“Flavored tobacco is a social justice issue,” Robinson, 3rd District, said at a committee meeting earlier this fall. She said her mother, who smoked menthol cigarettes, died of a stroke.
“The tobacco industry … has a history of really targeting the African American community, and African American neighborhoods are disproportionately impacted by the high number of tobacco retailers and pervasive tobacco marketing,” said Robinson, who is Black.
But Robinson and Parks-Shaw were the only members of the Finance, Governance and Public Safety Committee to support the legislation on Wednesday. Parks-Shaw, 5th District, made a motion to send the legislation to the full council without an endorsement by the committee, but even that fell short on a 4-2 vote.
The legislation, which the committee has considered on and off throughout the fall, would have closed gaps in previous flavored tobacco bans.
In 2009, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned flavored tobacco products but exempted menthol. Another partial federal ban last year restricted flavored vape products, but again exempted menthol and some forms of vapes.
The local measure was supported by several doctors and public health officials who testified to the committee last month that such a ban would improve community health.
Willie Lawrence, the chief of cardiology at Research Medical Center, noted the connection between smoking and cardiovascular disease and said it is “not an equal opportunity killer,” noting Black Americans suffer disproportionately from disease caused by nicotine and tobacco use.
“Tobacco companies have a shameful record of targeting youth and adults in communities of color, specifically with menthol products, resulting in disproportionately higher use and death rates among minorities,” Lawrence said.
“People just don’t care. They put profit ahead of health. This is a public health crisis. You can do something about it.”
But several store owners and wholesalers spoke out, saying the legislation would hurt their businesses because buyers would simply go to stores outside of Kansas City limits.
They also touted their training, saying their employees were careful not to sell to minors. Without reputable stores, they worried young people would turn to illicit sellers.
Jon McCormick, president of the Retail Grocers Association of Greater Kansas City, told the committee he would support similar legislation on the state level and help Kansas City lobby for it. But he said he didn’t favor city-level legislation, which he worried would simply drive sales to other communities.
Babir Sultan, who owns six convenience stores in Kansas City, said 70% of his non-gasoline sales come from tobacco products. He employs 50 people across those stores and another 40 across five more stores in the metropolitan area.
It wouldn’t make sense to keep his Fav Trip store at Bannister Road and Blue Ridge Boulevard open if he couldn’t sell flavored tobacco — and especially menthol products, he said.
Sultan also said he took issue with trying to make decisions for consumers.
“We are obviously against teen smoking,” he said in an interview. “I have my own kids and I don’t want them smoking, and I don’t smoke.”
Parks-Shaw and Robinson repeatedly noted the disproportionate impact tobacco use has on both low-income neighborhoods and the Black community.
According to a 2020 study funded by the National Cancer Institute, 40% of Kansas City’s schools are within 1,000 feet of tobacco retailers. The same study found there are 10 times as many sellers in Kansas City’s lowest-income neighborhoods than the highest-income areas.
Robinson noted both the disproportionate number of tobacco sellers in her council district and the high level of heart disease. She said the council needed to put people over profits.
But the committee had concerns about the wording of the legislation and whether the city could afford to enforce it.
In November, the committee delayed voting on the legislation because of some members’ concern that it was overly broad, noting claims by Diebel’s Sportsmens Gallery on the Country Club Plaza that some of its premium cigars, which are not commonly used by young people, might end up being restricted.
Curt Diebel, the store’s president, said in an interview this fall that the flavored pipe tobacco and premium cigars he sells do not appeal to underage users.
“I asked the council not to throw the baby out with the bathwater,” he said. “If there is indeed an issue with underage and flavored products, I don’t think they need to eliminate adult flavored products.”
Parks-Shaw offered an amended version Wednesday that would have exempted some products and stores.
But Councilman Kevin McManus, 6th District, said he was still worried it hadn’t been sufficiently vetted by community members and store operators.
Councilwoman Heather Hall, 1st District, said she thought it was inconsistent to restrict tobacco sales even as Kansas City drops municipal penalties for possession of marijuana.
The committee’s chair, Councilwoman Katheryn Shields, 4th District at-large, worried about adding the additional workload to the city’s Regulated Industries Division, which would enforce the rules.
Robinson and Parks-Shaw voted for the legislation. Hall, Shields, McManus and Councilman Lee Barnes, 5th District at-large, voted against it.
This story was originally published December 16, 2020 at 4:07 PM.
