How we can all help protect Philadelphia’s children from Big Tobacco

On a middle school student’s roughly mile-long walk to her school in North Philadelphia, she passed 16 tobacco retailers. This did not occur by chance. It is a predatory strategy by the tobacco industry, which spends $8.6 billion annually — nearly $1 million every hour — on advertising and marketing, with most of the money flowing to retailers that then target children.

City Council’s health committee is now considering a bill to increase penalties for retailers that sell e-cigarettes and unapproved nicotine products to underage youth. This is long overdue. We must recognize what’s really at stake: It’s the health of our city’s most vulnerable young people vs. Big Tobacco’s attempts to hook a new generation on tobacco products.

The tobacco industry’s playbook is clear. For decades, it has concentrated its promotions on retailers in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color, creating places where youth cannot avoid tobacco exposure.

In our city, 90% of public schools sit within 1,000 feet of a tobacco retailer — far above the national urban average of 63%. The high density of retailers is even more pronounced in lower-income neighborhoods, where tobacco sellers far exceed those in more affluent areas.

The consequences are devastating for certain groups. In 2023, 18.5% of Philadelphia high school students reported using e-cigarettes, which entice young users with fruity, sweet, and cooling tastes.

Some groups use these products at even higher rates: 21.4% of female students, 20.3% of Hispanic or Latino students, a shocking 32.5% of multiracial students, and 24% of LGBTQ students currently use these products.

How are these young people getting their hands on e-cigarettes despite the federal Tobacco 21 law prohibiting sales to anyone under 21? It’s the retail stores. National data from 2022 show that more than 40% of e-cigarette users aged 15-20 obtained their products directly from retail stores.

This represents an important fact: Retailers are, knowingly or not, participating in Big Tobacco’s predatory practices to the detriment of our young people in Philadelphia. These illegal sales continue because the current penalty of $250 is not enough to deter retailers.

Bill 250213, introduced by Councilmember Nina Ahmad, would start fines at $250 for first offenses and raise them to $2,000 for subsequent violations. Repeat offenders could lose their ability to sell tobacco products or be required to cease operations altogether.

Retailer associations might argue that these penalties are too harsh on small-business owners. But consider that tobacco companies fund retailer associations to oppose public health policies like this one.

The industry has conscripted small retailers into its billion-dollar marketing machinery, using them as foot soldiers to recruit a new generation of youth for nicotine products.

The bill’s approach is both practical and equitable. Half the collected fines would go to fund youth vaping prevention and education programs. Such efforts help bolster young people’s resistance against Big Tobacco’s predatory marketing.

The bill also emphasizes retailer accountability rather than penalizing youth possession and use, avoiding the trap of unfair policing in communities of color.

To ensure success, the Public Health Department’s enforcement officers must prepare retailers before implementing this law. This would include giving educational materials to retailers translated into various languages well before the enforcement period.

It also means monitoring violations to prevent discriminatory enforcement in lower-income neighborhoods and communities of color. Finally, officers must ensure that communities with the highest youth tobacco use rates receive adequate enforcement resources.

The tobacco industry has had decades of experience to perfect its strategy of targeting vulnerable populations through retail environments.

It knows that youth who often visit convenience stores have 80% higher odds of starting to vape over two years because they often see e-cigarette ads there.

It also knows that paying store owners to post tobacco ads on their storefronts and within their stores — particularly in neighborhoods where stores that accept SNAP and WIC benefits are commonly located — creates a pipeline of new youth users.

It’s time for Philadelphia to fight back. Bill 250213 represents more than increased fines for retailers — it’s a declaration that we will no longer allow the tobacco industry to recruit our youth to be its lifelong customers. Teens should not have to view wall-to-wall tobacco ads designed to attract them with candy- and fruit-flavored e-cigarettes. Every corner store owner should not have to choose between the irresistible profits from Big Tobacco and the health of their neighbors’ children.

Andy Tan is a senior fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics and an associate professor in the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication. He also directs Penn’s Health Communication Equity Lab.