CLEVELAND — Cleveland's Director of Public Health, Dr. Dave Margolius, has made the city's prolific smoking problem one of his biggest priorities, but some eight months after proposing a ban on flavored tobacco products, he's still waiting for a response from city council.
Margolius launched the Coalition to End Tobacco Targeting along with 50 hospital systems and non-profit organizations in 2023 and was hoping a vote on banning flavored tobacco products would take place before the end of the year.
“The rest of the country's smoking rate is now 11%, that’s down from 20% twenty years ago; during that same time, Cleveland’s smoking rate has gone up from 30% to 35%," Margolius said. “A lot of folks don’t know that so many people are still smoking in Cleveland and that it’s still the number one cause of death.”
Margolius told News 5 his coalition is trying to get anti-smoking messages out to the public, with the state of Ohio spending $15 million a year in public education, but said his team is battling with a Goliath.
"Big tobacco, those companies spend $430 million dollars year in Ohio, and so we’re not going to be able to outspend them on education,” Margolius said. “Most people who smoke want to quit, and so we’re trying to make it easier for them to quit by making cessation resources available. We're just waiting for city council to allow us to have a hearing.”
Ward 8 Cleveland Councilman Michael Polensek told News 5 he understands the magnitude of the city smoking health hazard but said a Cuyahoga County ban or state ban on menthol and flavored tobacco products would be more effective than just a city ban. Polensek also believes any ban would make it even harder on some small Cleveland business owners.
“To try to limit something just in the City of Cleveland is not going to work; if you’re going to do anything, you’ve got to go countywide," Polensek said. “We know the impact on small local businesses who are struggling big time, and that’s what we hear from them now."
Polensek said he believes stepped-up public education on the health hazards of smoking would be a more effective way to reduce the city's health risk. Polensek said it's a health message that must start at home.
“It’s getting our health department, not only our local, but the county health department really engaged in educating our folks about the dangers of smoking," Polensek said. “There are a lot of kids in our society who don’t have parents enforcing because the parents are engaged in it; that’s the other side, we have parents smoking at home, how do we expect the kids not to?”
Still, Margolius doesn't believe a city ban on flavored tobacco products will hurt Cleveland small business owners all that much and said if Cleveland takes the lead on a ban, he expects other Northeast Ohio cities to follow suit with similar bans, a phenomenon that took place in Columbus when it passed a ban last year.
”This is a spreadsheet of the 600 tobacco retailers in the City of Cleveland, and very few of them are small businesses or independently owned," Margolius said. “The City of Columbus passed this last year; it’s set to start January 1, 2024, and five suburbs have already followed Columbus’s lead, so Cleveland can be the leader here.”
Margolius urged Northeast Ohio residents to contact the smoking helpline set up by the Ohio Department of Health if they are hoping to stop smoking. Margolius said to simply dial 1-800-QUIT-NOW or text QUITNOW to 333888 for those who prefer texting. Margolius said the City of Cleveland resource guide can also provide great support.
“You can get on the phone with a coach that will help you quit smoking, who can give you free nicotine replacement therapy like the gum, like the patches," Margolius said. They can get you all the way here so you can spend those extra years breathing well and hanging out with your grandchildren.”
