Board of Aldermen 04-09-2019 Page 4
You’ve all heard it. | am going to say | support this Ordinance. | can say from personal experience that
when | was 18, yes | thought it was cool, | thought that it was something that you know, it was pleasurable |
thought. In recent times | have decided to give it up. If | had been forced to wait until | was 21, when my
mind was more mature, and thinking more appropriately, | would have said “No, | will not smoke”. | support
this Ordinance because we must protect our young people. What | saw in the last Hearing when there was
a resident who brought up a bag full of e-cigarettes that were collected at our High Schools, | was appalled.
| feel as though that should not be going on in our schools. We already have a problem with drugs in our
schools; we have problems with a lot of things. We must protect our youth. We must protect their minds
until they are fully developed. This is not about taking freedoms away, this is about protecting our young
people. And if you are afraid that by voting for this in favor that you may not get re-elected because your
people might think you are taking freedoms away, don’t be afraid of that. Stand up for our young people,
protect them and pass this Ordinance and | hope that the Mayor when it gets to his desk that he signs it
and we make this an effective law in the City of Nashua. And let’s make Nashua the prime example of
protecting our youth. Thank you.
Janet Valuk Good evening, my name is Janet Valuk and | live at 41 Roy Street in Ward 6. And | did talk
last week to many of you that were here, but not all of you were here so | am just going to highlight a few of
what | said last week in lieu of the time and the number of people that do want to speak. First of all,
nicotine is highly addictive, in fact it as addictive as heroin and cocaine according to the National Institute
on Drug Abuse. The Addiction Center reports that according to recent research that the five most addictive
drugs in order are: Heroin, Alcohol, Cocaine, Barbiturates and Nicotine, in that order. It may seem like we
are focusing on vaping right now but | want to emphasize that the FDA reports that the significant rise in E-
Cigarette use among student populations has resulted in overall tobacco product use increases of 38%
among high school students and 29% among middle school students, between 2017 and 2018 which has
negated the declines that we have seen in previous years.
This is a cause for concern because tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable disease and death in
the United States and nearly all tobacco products contain Nicotine. As adolescent brains are still
developing, Nicotine exposure during youth and young adulthood can change the way the brain works
leading to a lifetime of addiction and in some cases, causing long-lasting effects such as increased
impulsivity and mood disorders. Studies also find teens who use e-cigarettes have an increased risk of
trying combustible cigarettes.
While completing switching from combustible cigarettes to E-Cigarettes may potentially benefit addicted
adult smokers, no tobacco product, including E-Cigarettes is safe for a teenager to use. For each teen and
young adult prevented from becoming an established smoker, this will save them an early loss of life, lost
wages due to illnesses, costly medical care, lower productivity and increased disability. And we don’t know
all of the issues with vaping but | do know last week the FDA is investigating whether or not E-Cigarettes
may trigger seizures in some people who use the Nicotine vaping devices. They said Wednesday that it
had reviewed 35 reports of seizures among E-Cigarette users, mainly in young people. And they did stress
that it’s not clear whether or not the vaping was the cause of that, but they encouraged the public to report
information about the issue.
The Surgeon General reported on December 18" that this is his fourth in ten years from his office quoting
him, “Il am officially declaring E-Cigarette use among youth an epidemic in the United States”. In closing I’d
like to leave you with the same statement that | made last week, this is not a war on tobacco. It’s not a war
on the stores that sell tobacco or the people that are already smoking. This is in defense of the brains of
our children and young adults. And if it is the money that might be lost by the stores, it is so important,
please think about our youth’s health, not about the profit. I’m asking you to please not put money above
health. Nashua can be an example as Keene, Newmarket, Dover and our neighbors to the south, the
entire State of Massachusetts has now gone to 21; to send a message to the State that this should be done
state-wide.
And just to let you know what a problem this is in Nashua, as the person that spoke before me said, | guess
| am considered the bag lady now. This is what was confiscated from students at both Nashua High South
