NUMBER
200884
VERSION
SUBSTITUTE 1
Reference
Sponsor
ALD. MURPHY
Title
Substitute resolution approving the retention of outside counsel to pursue potential vaping litigation.
Analysis
This resolution authorizes the City Attorney to enter into a contingent fee agreement with outside counsel to pursue potential litigation against JUUL and other responsible defendants regarding e-cigarettes and other vaping products.
…Body
Whereas, Over the past nearly two decades since cigarette smoking was established as a public health hazard the use of tobacco use and nicotine addiction for youths plummeted from 28% in 2000 to 7.6% in 2017;
Whereas, Between 2017 and 2018, e-cigarette use increased 78% among high school students nationwide, from 11.7% of high school students in 2017 to 20.8% of high schoolers in 201; e-cigarette use among middle school students increased 48% between 2017 and 2018, and the increase in youth nicotine vaping from 2017 to 2018 was the largest for any substance tracked by the national Monitoring the Future surveys over the past forty-four years; and
Whereas, Youth vaping rates continued to climb from 2018 to 2019, such that vaping prevalence more than doubled among each grade level surveyed-eighth, tenth, and twelfth graders-in the past two years. In 2019, more than five million middle and high school students reported current use of e-cigarettes, including more than one in every four high schoolers; and
Whereas, The Wisconsin Department of Health Services reports that e-cigarette use among high school students increased 154 percent between 2014 and 2018 and the e-cigarette use by Wisconsin high school increased from just under 8% in 2014 to 20% in 2018;
Whereas, In 2018, in response to the public health crisis created by e-cigarettes and vaping, the Common Council, in file no. 180187 created MCO 160-30.2 prohibiting the sale of electronic smoking devices to persons under 18, and in file no. 180354, amended MCO 105-48 and created MCO 105-4...
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