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Public-health officials urge Senate to restore tobacco prevention funding, vape retailer license and higher tobacco taxes
Summary
Public-health advocates told the Senate Health Committee the House cut prevention funding and removed critical regulatory tools, and they urged restoration of a vapor-retailer registry, higher tobacco taxes and $10 million per year for Ohio’s Tobacco Use Prevention Fund.
Local health officials, the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network and other public-health witnesses asked the Senate to restore higher funding and regulatory tools to curb youth tobacco and vaping use.
Leah Baylor of the Clark County Combined Health District described school confiscations of vaping devices and said a retailer licensing program reduced vendor sales-to-minors failures from 35% to 8% in local compliance checks. "If you take a look at these products, you can clearly tell that these products are not designed for adults," Baylor said, noting approximately 30 pounds of confiscated devices from one school over six to eight months.
Dustin Hoelfinger of the American Heart Association and Lee Almeida of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network urged the Senate to reverse House cuts to the Tobacco Use Prevention Fund and to restore proposed tax increases on cigarettes and a wholesale-based tax on other tobacco products. Almeida said a $1.50-per-pack cigarette tax increase would prevent about 11,800 Ohio kids from becoming adult smokers, encourage roughly 43,900 adults to quit and generate new revenue to support prevention.
Witnesses also urged the Senate to reinsert a vapor-retailer registry so regulators can hold retailers accountable for repeated illegal sales and to direct application and renewal fees into prevention programs. The House version reduced tobacco-prevention funding to $6 million per year, while advocates urged restoring funding to $10 million per year and restoring the proposed tax increases.
The committee heard no vote during these presentations; witnesses asked senators to restore prevention funding, the vapor‑retailer registry and tax changes in the final HB 96 version.
