Mayor Rahm Emanuel is joining with a coalition of community groups and aldermen to champion two ordinances aimed at protecting children from tobacco industry strategies to hook them on cigarette products at a young age. The proposed ordinances would regulate e-cigarettes as “tobacco products” pending further regulations from the Food and Drug Administration, and expand the prohibition of flavored tobacco products from 100 feet to 500 feet from a school. The City is also launching a public awareness campaign to educate Chicagoans about the harm of flavored cigarettes.

Chicago will become the first major city to regulate e-cigarettes as tobacco products, and the first city to impose targeted restrictions on the sale of flavored tobacco products including mentholated products. The expanded tobacco control policies will make it more difficult for youth to access these products, curtailing preventable diseases and other issues in the future. Earlier this fall, Chairman Burke and Alderman Burns introduced an ordinance prohibiting the distribution and sale of electronic cigarettes to minors, establishing fines for persons who sell to minors, and requiring that sellers post warnings about e-cigarettes. Mayor Emanuel along with Alderman Emma Mitts and Alderman JoAnn Thompson is joining their effort to expand the law’s impact and further advance the City’s efforts to regulate e-cigarettes with these additional actions.

In conjunction with the proposed ordinances, the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) will launch a public service advertising campaign that will highlight the dangers of smoking flavored cigarettes as an addictive, gateway product, with a particular focus on the negative effect that these products have on youth.