Press Releases

House Passes HHS Omnibus Bill Containing Strong Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Policies

Bill Raises Tobacco Age to 21, Funds Quit-Smoking Services, Strengthens Clean Indoor Air and Dedicates Delinquent Tobacco Settlement Fees to Prevention

ST PAUL (4/25/19) – Today the Minnesota House passed their Health and Human Services omnibus bill, which contains four strong tobacco prevention and cessation policies. The bill tackles tobacco addiction from several angles by raising the tobacco age to 21, strengthening the clean indoor air act, securing statewide quit-smoking services, and dedicating delinquent tobacco settlement payments to health.

“Thank you to Chair Liebling and the Minnesota House for sending a clear message that the health of our kids and our neighbors is more important than tobacco industry profits,” said Molly Moilanen, Vice President at ClearWay Minnesota^SM and Co-Chair of Minnesotans for a Smoke-Free Generation. “People from across our state agree that we can do more to address the devastating harm of tobacco use and this bill is a huge step in the right direction. Right now, Minnesota is losing ground to the tobacco industry and we are facing a youth nicotine epidemic. Through these provisions, Minnesota can stop kids from ever starting, help adults quit smoking and keep our air clean.”

Minnesotans for a Smoke-Free Generation, a coalition of more than 60 organizations that share a common goal of saving Minnesota youth from a lifetime of addiction to tobacco, thanked the House for passing a strong, multifaceted bill. The coalition urged the Minnesota Senate to follow the House’s lead by also passing these four provisions.

Tobacco use remains the leading cause of preventable death and disease, costing residents an estimated $7 billion annually and taking the lives of more than 6,300 Minnesotans every year. Unfortunately, the relentless tactics of the tobacco industry have interrupted decades of progress to reduce tobacco addiction. In Minnesota alone, the tobacco industry still spends more than $100 million a year marketing its products to recruit replacement smokers and keep users hooked. That spending doesn’t even include e-cigarette ads, which were seen by 88 percent of middle and high-school students in Minnesota.

Thanks to aggressive efforts by partners throughout the state, smoking rates in Minnesota had been declining for decades. Regrettably, that progress has slowed and the adult cigarette smoking rate has stalled out at 14 percent. To make matters worse, youth tobacco use has increased for the first time in 17 years. In particular, youth and young adult e-cigarette rates have skyrocketed, and today about one in five Minnesota high-schoolers and young adults (18-24-year-olds) uses e-cigarettes such as JUUL. E-cigarettes are threatening the health of Minnesota teens, driving an increase in youth tobacco use that the U.S. Surgeon General has called an epidemic.

Minnesota must do more to protect children from a lifetime of addiction and disease and to help those already addicted quit for good. These provisions include:

Tobacco 21

Summary: Raising the tobacco sale age to 21 will help reduce youth smoking and save lives, since 95% of addicted adult smokers started before age 21. To date, 31 Minnesota cities and counties have adopted Tobacco 21 policies. Tobacco 21 would have a profound effect on health, reducing smoking among 15-to-17-year-olds by an estimated 25 percent.

More info: Tobacco 21 fact sheet

Smoking Cessation Funding

Summary: QUITPLAN® Services, the state’s free quit-smoking helpline, is ending in 2020. Lawmakers must fund quit-smoking resources this year so there is no gap in help for Minnesotans who are trying to quit tobacco. If Minnesota does not fund a statewide service, it will become the only state in the nation not providing one.

More info: Cessation funding fact sheet

Keeping Indoor Air Clean

Summary: Minnesotans expect and deserve clean indoor air. This bill expands the definition of smoking to ensure Minnesota’s smoke-free indoor air law covers the use of e-cigarettes wherever smoking is prohibited. Several local Minnesota communities have passed these policies, but Minnesota does not have a comprehensive statewide law.

More info: E-cigarette fact sheet, E-cigarettes in CIAA poll fact sheet 

Dedicating Delinquent Tobacco Settlement Fees

Summary: Since 2015, several cigarette brands have not been paying their required share of settlement fees to the state of Minnesota. Big Tobacco companies agreed to pay these fees in perpetuity as part of the 1998 Minnesota Tobacco Settlement. This bill states that if and when the delinquent companies pay these fees, part of those funds will be dedicated to health and addressing the harms caused by tobacco use, now and in the future.

Minnesotans for a Smoke-Free Generation urged legislators to retain these lifesaving policies throughout the upcoming budget negotiation process.

About Minnesotans for a Smoke-Free Generation

Minnesotans for a Smoke-Free Generation is a coalition of more than 60 organizations that share a common goal of saving Minnesota youth from a lifetime of addiction to tobacco. The coalition supports policies that reduce youth smoking and nicotine addiction, including increasing tobacco prices, raising the tobacco sale age to 21, limiting access to candy-, fruit- and menthol-flavored tobacco, and funding tobacco prevention and cessation programs.

Partners include: A Healthier Southwest, African American Leadership Forum, Allina Health, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, American Heart Association, American Lung Association in Minnesota, Apple Tree Dental, Association for Nonsmokers – Minnesota, Aurora/St. Anthony Neighborhood Corporation, Becker County Energize, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, CentraCare Health, Children’s Defense Fund-Minnesota, Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota, ClearWay Minnesota^SM,  Comunidades Latinas Unidas En Servicio – CLUES, Dodge County Public Health, Essentia Health, Gillette Children’s Specialty Healthcare, HealthEast, HealthPartners, Hennepin Healthcare, Hope Dental Clinic, Horizon Public Health, Indigenous Peoples Task Force, ISAIAH, JustUs Health, LAAMPP Alumni, Lake Region Healthcare, Lincoln Park Children and Families Collaborative, Local Public Health Association of Minnesota, March of Dimes, Mayo Clinic, Medica, Meeker McLeod Sibley Community Health Services, Minnesota Academy of Family Physicians, Minnesota Cancer Alliance, Minnesota Council of Health Plans, Minnesota Hospital Association, Minnesota Medical Association, Minnesota Nurses Association, Minnesota Oral Health Coalition, Minnesota Public Health Association, MN Association of Community Health Centers, MN Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Model Cities of St. Paul, Inc., NAMI Minnesota, North Memorial Health Care, NorthPoint Health and Wellness Center, Olmsted Medical Center, PartnerSHIP 4 Health, Perham Health, Preventing Tobacco Addiction Foundation, SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, Shift MN, St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce, Steele County Public Health, Tobacco Free Alliance, Twin Cities Medical Society, UCare, Vision In Living Life “Change is Possible”,  WellShare International and Zumbro Valley Medical Society. Find out more at: smokefreegenmn.org.