Washington, D.C.) – U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), the top Democrat on the Senate health committee, sent a letter to Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar denouncing his delay in addressing the growing epidemic of youth tobacco use in Washington state and across the country. In her letter, Senator Murray also urged the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to finalize its promised compliance policy and clear the market of unauthorized, flavored e-cigarette products, including mint and menthol flavors.
There have been twelve cases of vaping-related illness in Washington state alone, and e-cigarette use has increased by more than 75 percent amongst high school students across the country—largely fueled by the appeal of products with flavors like candy, fruit, mint and menthol. Nearly two-thirds of youth that use e-cigarettes use mint and menthol products. Though the Trump Administration has promised to address the epidemic, the FDA has yet to take meaningful action and is even reportedly considering exempting mint and menthol flavors, despite its promise to include them in the compliance policy. As delays persist and President Trump continues to play politics with public health, e-cigarette use among children continues to increase with no signs of stopping.
“Because of the ever-increasing epidemic of youth e-cigarette use that has been fueled by flavors that include mint and menthol, we implore the Administration to finalize a compliance policy removing all unauthorized, non-tobacco flavored e-cigarettes from the market immediately,” wrote Senator Murray. “It must not bow to industry or political pressure at the expense of the public health.”
Full text of the letter is below and the PDF is HERE.
October 29, 2019
The Honorable Alex M. Azar II
Secretary
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
200 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20201
Dear Secretary Azar,
We write with significant concerns about the continued delay by the Trump Administration in issuing a compliance policy to address the terrible epidemic of e-cigarette use among children. After years of delay and inaction, which fueled this epidemic, the Trump Administration announced on September 11, 2019, that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) intended to “finalize a compliance policy in the coming weeks that would prioritize the agency’s enforcement of the premarket authorization requirements for non-tobacco flavored e-cigarettes, including mint and menthol, clearing the market of unauthorized, non-tobacco flavored e-cigarette products.”[1] We have long advocated for this action and were encouraged that the Administration had finally decided to act. As of today, however, the FDA has neither finalized nor announced when it will finalize the compliance policy and is reportedly considering significantly weakening this policy by exempting mint and menthol products, which your agency’s own data have demonstrated are incredibly popular among children.[2] While the Administration continues to permit the sale of unauthorized, non-tobacco flavored e-cigarette products, each day more children are becoming e-cigarette users – driven primarily by flavors.[3] We strongly urge the Administration to fulfill its promise to clear the market of all unauthorized, non-tobacco flavored e-cigarettes – including mint and menthol flavors – immediately.
It is imperative that the Administration promptly finalize the compliance policy. E-cigarette use among children continues to rise at an alarming rate. Approximately 20 percent of high school students reported using e-cigarettes in 2018, which is more than a 75 percent increase in use from 2017.[4] Furthermore, high school students who used e-cigarettes reported using them more often in 2018 than in 2017. E-cigarette use among middle school students increased nearly 50 percent from 2017 to 2018.[5] This appetite for e-cigarette use by children has been largely fueled by the appeal of non-tobacco flavors such as fruit, candy, and menthol or mint.[6] There are no recent signs that e-cigarette use by children is decreasing: preliminary data from the 2019 National Youth Tobacco Survey shows a continued rise in youth e-cigarette use.[7]
Although the full scope of the dangers remains uncertain, it is well-known that e-cigarettes pose a serious health risk to youth. On October 11, 2018, the Washington Post published an op-ed by you and then-FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb. In it, you acknowledged that “the steps we have taken thus far are not enough,” noting that e-cigarettes have been the most popular nicotine product among American teenagers since 2014; nicotine is highly addictive and can harm brain development; and children who start on e-cigarettes are more likely than non-smoking peers to end up using traditional tobacco products.[8] You stated you were “actively reconsidering our policy under which certain e-cigarettes — particularly the products with flavors that might appeal to children — can remain on the market ….”[9] In the year since, the epidemic has worsened, and we have learned that e-cigarettes are associated with a nationwide outbreak of lung illnesses, some of which have resulted in death.
On September 11, 2019, you joined President Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, and Acting FDA Commissioner Norman Sharpless in the Oval Office to announce your intent to finalize the compliance policy removing unauthorized, non-tobacco flavored e-cigarettes from the market.[10] You stated the Administration’s intent to “clear the market of flavored e-cigarettes to reverse the deeply concerning epidemic of youth e-cigarette use that is impacting children, families, schools and communities,” and Acting Commissioner Sharpless noted that “finalization of the compliance policy will be an important step in ongoing work to ensure e-cigarettes are not marketed to, sold to, or used by kids.”[11]
With each day, more children continue to be lured to e-cigarettes by flavors such as fruit, candy, and mint or menthol. We are therefore deeply troubled that there is no final compliance policy more than six weeks after the Oval Office announcement. Instead, the FDA provides assurances that the agency is working “as quickly as possible” to finalize a compliance policy.[12] It is increasingly unclear what the FDA’s final compliance policy will look like.
The Trump Administration is reportedly considering allowing mint and menthol flavors to remain on the market even if and when the FDA does finalize a compliance policy, despite nearly two-thirds of kids who use e-cigarettes using mint and menthol flavored products.[13] This is unacceptable. The Administration has already delayed action for far too long to address this public health crisis.
Further fueling our concerns, on October 25, 2019, news reports indicated that this reconsideration follows warnings from President Trump’s campaign manager, Brad Parscale, that a policy removing flavored e-cigarettes from the market “could backfire in the 2020 election” and that “Trump supporters who use e-cigarettes could abandon the president if he follows through on a ban.”[14] We are outraged that the President appears to be playing politics with children’s health.
Because of the ever-increasing epidemic of youth e-cigarette use that has been fueled by flavors that include mint and menthol, we implore the Administration to finalize a compliance policy removing all unauthorized, non-tobacco flavored e-cigarettes from the market immediately. It must not bow to industry or political pressure at the expense of the public health. If you have any questions regarding this letter, please contact Andi Lipstein Fristedt with the HELP Committee Staff at (202) 224-7675.
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ATTORNEY GENERAL BOB FERGUSON STOPS KING COUNTY COFFEE SHOP’S PRACTICE REQUIRING BARISTAS TO SIGN UNFAIR NON-COMPETE AGREEMENTS
Press released issued 10. 29. 19OLYMPIA — Attorney General Bob Ferguson today announced that King County coffee chain Mercurys Coffee will void all of its existing non-compete agreements. Today’s announcement is the result of Ferguson’s investigation into Mercurys Coffee’s unfair use of non-compete agreements – the first of its kind for the Washington Attorney General’s Office.
As a result of Ferguson’s action, the company cannot require hourly baristas to sign non-compete agreements. In addition, the company must pay $50,000 to reimburse the Attorney General’s Office for its attorneys fees and costs associated with the investigation.
For years, Mercurys Coffee required all employees — including low-wage, hourly workers — to sign restrictive non-compete agreements. These agreements prevented employees from working at any coffee shop within 10 miles of a Mercurys Coffee location. The prohibition extended for eighteen months after leaving the company. This policy had the practical effect of preventing Mercurys baristas from working at most coffee shops in King County and parts of Snohomish County. For example, a barista working at Mercurys’ Redmond location would need to drive at least 40 minutes to find another coffee shop where they were allowed to work.
Furthermore, the company enforced the agreements. Mercurys Coffee filed several lawsuits against workers who found employment at other coffee shops. Ferguson asserts that the company’s non-compete practices limited employment options and mobility for workers and unfairly limited competition for labor.
“Non-compete agreements targeting low-wage, hourly employees give companies an unfair advantage at the expense of workers,” Ferguson said. “Any company that makes their employees sign unfair contracts should expect to hear from my office. A coffee shop barista, or any low-wage worker for that matter, should not fear retaliation just for moving to another job that’s better for them.”
According to Ferguson’s complaint, Mercurys’ non-compete agreements violated the Washington Consumer Protection Act, which prohibits companies from engaging in “unfair methods of competition.” Non-compete agreements limit low-wage workers’ options, mobility and ability to advocate for better pay and working conditions. This gives the employer an unfair advantage in competing for their labor — one of many reasons wages have stagnated even as employment rates have gone up.
Mercurys’s non-compete agreements
Mercurys Coffee has about 120 employees in eight locations in King County. The company required all employees, including those making near minimum wage, to sign non-compete agreements as a condition of their employment. Mercurys has employed more than 700 people in the last five years, all or most of whom were required to sign the non-compete agreement.
In general, these non-compete agreements prevented the former employee from working for any other local coffee shop within a 10 mile radius of any Mercurys location for 18 months after termination of employment. For a barista trying to find a job after working at a Mercurys, this agreement prohibited employment at coffee shops in much of King County, including Bellevue, Mercer Island, Kirkland, Sammamish, Redmond and most of Seattle.
For years, the non-compete agreements barred employment at all types of coffee shops. In 2016, Mercurys began including an exception allowing former baristas to work at coffee shops with more than 40 locations.
Under the non-compete agreements, employees were required to provide a copy of the agreement to any potential new employer — regardless of industry or geography — for two years after employment with Mercurys, six months longer than the non-compete restriction itself.
Mercurys has sued or threatened to sue former employees to enforce the non-competes. For example, Mercurys filed suit against one of its former baristas, a store manager who made $17 per hour. The barista left Mercurys to work for a competitor about one and a half miles from a Mercurys location. Mercurys threatened to sue another former employee who left to work at a nearby Starbucks.
The Attorney General’s Office learned about Mercurys’ non-compete agreements after receiving a consumer complaint from one of the attorneys representing a former Mercurys barista.
Assistant Attorneys General Rahul Rao and Eric Newman are leading the case.
Washington’s legislature recently passed a bill explicitly limiting non-compete agreements. Among other protections, the bill makes unenforceable non-compete agreements with employees making less than $100,000 a year. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Marko Liias, D-Mukilteo, and then-Rep. Derek Stanford, D-Bothell, goes into effect Jan. 1, 2020. This enforcement action is not directly related to the new law.
Going forward, even though the new law does allow non-compete agreements for employees making more than $100,000 per year, this resolution requires Mercurys Coffee to get approval from the Attorney General’s Office for managers and other employees making that amount. If the company believes a non-compete agreement is necessary for an employee making more than $100,000 per year, the company must submit the agreement to the Attorney General’s Office for approval within three days of presenting it to the employee.
Worker Protection Initiative
This action is part of Ferguson’s ongoing Worker Protection Initiative, which also includes an effort to eliminate no-poach clauses — a practice that economists believe stagnates wages. As a result of this effort, 155 chains have signed legally binding commitments to end no-poach practices nationwide at an estimated 160,000 locations. The changes benefit millions of workers across the U.S.
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https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/10/1050291
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Work on drafting a new foundational text for war-torn Syria officially began at the UN in Geneva on Wednesday with representatives from the Syrian Government and opposition sitting face to face and preparing to discuss the country’s future for the first time in the nearly nine-year conflict.
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If emissions from the maritime industry are not cut, we are headed for “an environmental disaster”, Isabelle Durant, the deputy head of the UN trade body, UNCTAD, told the Global Maritime Forum summit on Wednesday.
https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/10/1050251
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https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/10/1050311
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Ten years ago, the UN Security Council established a mandate to prevent and address the scourge of conflict-related sexual violence. At a commemorative event on Wednesday, the UN deputy chief described that commitment as essential to “highlight, prevent and seek justice for this crime”.
https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/10/1050271
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HAPPY BELATED HALLOWEENđź’€
The Monster Mash---
