Selected Excerpts from Summary Decision Shown Below — To read the entire Summary Decision CLICK ON THIS FILE — 19P0020-SD
On February 23, 2017, a Yarmouth Health Department agent (agent) conducted an inspection of Cumberland Farms Store 2268 in West Yarmouth (Store), and determined that the Store offered three flavored tobacco products for sale in violation of § G: Black & Mild “Jazz” cigars, White Owl “Green Sweet” cigars, and Garcia Y Vega Game “Red” Cigars. In so doing, the agent did not smell or open the packaging of the products, and instead relied on a document (hereinafter Guidance List) created and maintained by the Massachusetts Association of Health Boards (MAHB). The three products identified by the agent were on the MAHB’s Guidance List at the time of the inspection. Three witnesses testified in support of finding that the three products were flavored: Cheryl Sbarra, MAHB’s director of policy and law; Sarah McColgan, the tobacco control director of the Massachusetts Health Officers Association (MHOA);7 and Robert Collett, director of the Cape Code Regional Tobacco Control Program (CCRTCP).
Sbarra testified at the hearings that MAHB employees had found “over and over” that “Jazz” cigars “smelled like a special sauce” that is “a distinguishable taste or aroma other than tobacco or mint.” Sbarra’s sworn written statement also averred that she had personally smelled “Jazz” cigars and that “it was clear that the product contained a strong aroma other than tobacco or menthol.” McColgan also testified that she had purchased multiple packs of the offending tobacco products from one of Cumberland’s stores, opened and smelled each one, and reported that she perceived “a fruity type of smell” emanating from the “Jazz” cigars.
Conclusion. Because the Board considered extensive evidence and testimony in finding Cumberland in violation of § G of the Regulation, we conclude that its decisions were supported by substantial evidence and were not arbitrary and capricious. Accordingly, so much of the judgment as affirms the Board’s decision, after remand, imposing a monetary fine is reversed. In all other respects the judgement is affirmed.
Tobacco Control
Tobacco Control & Prevention
Tobacco Regulation Template – 03/30/2021
Tobacco Maps of Massachussetts
Flavored Product MAHB Guidance List – 12/18/2017
MAHB Guidance Flavored Products Removed From List – 9/18/2017
MAHB Guidance Flavored Products Added to List – 9/18/2017
School Policy Guide – 2/15/2018
Archived documents
Tobacco Regulation Template 4/14/2019
Flavored Product MAHB Guidance List – 9/18/2017
Flavored Product MAHB Guidance List – 8/17/2016
MAHB Guidance Flavored Products Added to List – 8/17/2016
MAHB Guidance Flavored Products Removed From List – 8/17/2016
Second Hand Smoke & Multi Unit Housing
Challenges
Since the release of the first Surgeon General’s report in 1964 warning of the health hazards of smoking, we have learned what works and what doesn’t in ending this tragic epidemic. With significant investments in research, education and evidence-based policy development, Americans have seen a 67% reduction in the use of combustible cigarettes since 1965.[1] Yet smoking remains the leading preventable cause of premature disease and death in the United States. In 2014, 50 years after the first Surgeon General’s report, the Surgeon General released a report entitled The Health Consequences of Smoking – 50 Years of Progress.
Major conclusions from the report include:
- The century-long epidemic of cigarette smoking has caused an enormous avoidable public health tragedy. Since the first Surgeon General’s report in 1964 more than 20 million premature deaths can be attributed to cigarette smoking.
- The tobacco epidemic was initiated and has been sustained by the aggressive strategies of the tobacco industry, which has deliberately misled the public on the risks of smoking cigarettes.
- Since the 1964 Surgeon General’s report, cigarette smoking has been causally linked to diseases of nearly all organs of the body, to diminished health status, and to harm to the fetus. Even 50 years after the first Surgeon General’s report, research continues to newly identify diseases caused by smoking, including such common diseases as diabetes mellitus, rheumatoid arthritis, and colorectal cancer.
- Exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke has been causally linked to cancer, respiratory, and cardiovascular diseases, and to adverse effects on the health of infants and children.
- The disease risks from smoking by women have risen sharply over the last 50 years and are now equal to those for men for lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and cardiovascular diseases.
- In addition to causing multiple diseases, cigarette smoking has many adverse effects on the body, such as causing inflammation and impairing immune function.
- Although cigarette smoking has declined significantly since 1964, very large disparities in tobacco use remain across groups defined by race, ethnicity, educational level, and socioeconomic status and across regions of the country.
- Since the 1964 Surgeon General’s report, comprehensive tobacco control programs and policies have been proven effective for controlling tobacco use. Further gains can be made with the full, forceful, and sustained use of these measures.
- The burden of death and disease from tobacco use in the United States is overwhelmingly caused by cigarettes and other combusted tobacco products; rapid elimination of their use will dramatically reduce this burden.
- For 50 years the Surgeon General’s reports on smoking and health have provided a critical scientific foundation for public health action directed at reducing tobacco use and preventing tobacco-related disease and premature death.[2]
[1] U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Smoking Cessation: A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, 2020.
[2] U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of Smoking-50 Years of Progress: A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, 2014.
Opportunities
In response to the growing vaping epidemic among teens, many local boards of health enacted restriction on the sale of flavored vaping products. In 2019, Massachusetts took a major step forward in protecting health in the Commonwealth with An Act Modernizing Tobacco Control (the 2019 Act). The 2019 Act included a ban the sale of all flavored nicotine products, except at licensed smoking bars for onsite consumption. The statewide flavor ban arose out of action taken by local boards of health adopting regulations restricting or prohibiting the sale of flavored products within their city or town. Local boards of health are empowered to adopt measures to further strengthen their tobacco control, and historically action by local boards of health has led to statewide policy changes that put our state at the forefront of tobacco control nationally.
The FSPTCA does not address cheap tobacco products, such as fifty-cent cigars or oral nicotine pouches. While the 2019 Act prohibits the sale of flavored products, it also does not address these cheap tobacco products. As a result, there are a number of opportunities available to local boards of health to adopt regulations to further protect the public health.
One strategy local boards of health have adopted is to prohibit the single sale of cheap cigars and require them to be sold in package of two or more. Local boards of health can also restrict the sale of oral nicotine pouches to adult-only retail establishments.
Another opportunity for local boards of health is to focus on addressing retail density. Reducing density strategies include prohibiting the sale of tobacco in healthcare institutions like pharmacies, capping the number of retail tobacco products and prohibiting new tobacco retailers in areas around school.
Sample templates for both tobacco-use regulations and secondhand smoke regulations are included in the Resource section of this website.
[1] Food and Drug Administration. 2011. Fact Sheet: Flavored Tobacco Products, www.fda.gov/downloads/TobaccoProducts/ProtectingKidsfromTobacco/FlavoredTobacco/UCM183214.pdf; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 2012. Preventing tobacco Use Among Youth and Young Adults: A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta: U.S. National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office of Smoking and Health, p. 539. www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/reports/preenting-youth-tobacco-use/full-report.pdf.