Following an alarming report that exposed devastating well being disparities in Santa Clara County’s Latino inhabitants, a number of San Jose councilmembers need to put a brief ban on new smoke outlets within the metropolis, in hopes of stopping the additional sprawl of the tobacco retailers which have populated the East Aspect.
Councilmember Peter Ortiz, the East San Jose consultant main the initiative, urged the momentary moratorium would final six months to a yr and would permit town to create new licensing necessities for companies promoting tobacco merchandise.
“This is a pause so we can finally draw a line in the sand — so we can finally say enough is enough,” Ortiz stated at a press convention Wednesday afternoon. “We cannot allow our children to walk past two or three smoke shops just to make it to their school. We cannot allow our youth to grow up thinking that tobacco and smoking is normal and that cancer is inevitable or that their lives are any less than kids growing up in other parts of San Jose.”
Ortiz added that whereas he’s pro-business, there are sufficient smoke outlets within the metropolis and he doesn’t assist extra tobacco retailers that can earn a living off of “selling products that will result in health problems to our community.”
The proposal, which is co-authored by Councilmembers Pamela Campos, Domingo Candelas, David Cohen and George Casey, comes a number of weeks after the county launched its first Latino well being evaluation in additional than a decade.
The 157-page report discovered that Latinos within the county typically face worse well being outcomes than their white and Asian counterparts, whereas incomes decrease wages on common and having decrease charges of medical insurance. In East San Jose, the density of tobacco retailers was greater than double that of the remainder of the county, in accordance with the report. Latinos make up almost half of all residents on the East Aspect, and countywide, the main reason behind demise for Latino residents between 2019 and 2023 was most cancers.
Darcie Inexperienced, the manager director of the nonprofit Latinas Contra Most cancers, stated the momentary ban on new smoke outlets is lengthy overdue.
“This moratorium is about pressing pause on harm and making the space for health and equity and possibility in our neighborhoods,” she stated on the press convention. “We’re not just saying no to shops, we’re saying yes to a healthier East San Jose.”
In recent times, San Jose has been on the forefront of making new restrictions for tobacco and vaping merchandise offered within the metropolis. In 2021, San Jose turned one of many greatest cities within the nation to ban the sale of menthol and flavored e-cigarettes.
The coverage, which confronted pushback from the tobacco business, additionally prohibited new smoke outlets from opening up inside 500 toes of one other retailer or inside 1,000 toes of a college, park, group heart, or library.
In 2020, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a invoice that banned the sale of most flavored tobacco merchandise in California. The tobacco business, nonetheless, launched a subsequent referendum marketing campaign and put it on maintain till voters affirmed it in November 2022. Since then, the state has enacted a number of legal guidelines that strengthened enforcement provisions across the sale of flavored tobacco.
On the council’s guidelines committee assembly on Wednesday afternoon, Rachel Roberts, the deputy director of code enforcement, stated that the variety of smoke outlets within the metropolis has decreased for the reason that 2021 coverage, from greater than 600 to 575 citywide. The proposal will come again to the foundations committee in a number of weeks after metropolis officers conduct extra evaluation.
Santa Clara County Supervisor Sylvia Arenas, who helped champion the Latino Well being Evaluation, stated that the report validates what many Latinos locally already knew.
“It’s finally the data that we needed to share with everyone so that we can take real action and turn what we find in the data into a policy that responds to the needs of our community,” Arenas stated. “This is the first action another municipality outside of the county has taken, and it is a great source of pride.”
