Fellow Illinoisan,

More than two months ago, President Trump and the First Lady announced from the Oval Office that they would take dramatic steps to end the epidemic of youth vaping that has now impacted five million children nationwide. That promise has now all but gone up in smoke.

Reporting suggests that President Trump has decided to reverse course on his promise to ban all non-tobacco e-cigarette flavors - flavors like bubble gum, cotton candy, cool mint, razzleberry, fruit medley, and menthol. Unfortunately, the tobacco and vaping industry’s lobbying efforts seem to have swayed the President’s decision making, and sadly our kids will pay the price with addiction and lung damage.

DURBIN TO PRESIDENT TRUMP: YOU SHOULD CARE MORE ABOUT CHILDREN THAN LOBBYING PRESSURE FROM BIG VAPE

As of today, five million children are hooked on vaping, including more than one in four high-school students and more than one in ten middle-school students. That’s an increase of 135% over the past two years alone. Today, nearly 30 percent of school-aged children are vaping, compared with less than four percent of adults. And we know that e-cigarette use leads to 81 new smokers for every one smoker who quits. E-cigarettes are causing young people to become addicted to nicotine far more often than they are helping adults quit tobacco cigarettes.

Further, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 2,172 people have recently been sickened by vaping related illnesses, and 42 people have died - including four deaths in Illinois. We must act, with or without the President’s help.

First and foremost, we must prohibit the sale of e-cigarette flavorings unless, or until, they can prove that they benefit the public health, as President Trump promised he would do, before lobbying pressure from Big Tobacco and Big Vape changed his mind. That’s why I introduced the bipartisan Stopping Appealing Flavors in E-Cigarettes for Kids (SAFE Kids) Act. E-cigarette flavors are designed to appeal to children - and, with more than 80 percent of children reporting that they start vaping because of the flavors, they’re working.

Regardless of what the President might say and do - or say and not do - I will keep working to address this epidemic for what it is: a full-blown public health crisis. We cannot allow an entire generation of American children to get hooked on nicotine and e-cigarettes.

Sincerely, 

U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL)