Town looks to snuff out tobacco sales
A small town in Massachusetts may be the first in the nation to ban the sale of tobacco. On Wednesday, the Board of Health in the central Massachusetts town of Westminster, which has a population of just 7,700, will hear public comment on a proposed regulation that would ban the sale of all tobacco products within town limits.
Tobacco use has already been banned in workplaces and in restaurants and bars in Massachusetts. Some communities have also banned smoking in public parks.
Local small business owners in Westminster are concerned about losing business if the measure is passed. Yahoo Finance editor-in-chief Aaron Task says those businesses' customers who “also might pick up a carton of milk or some eggs or bread or some other things" while in the local stores may shop elsewhere. "And if they’re going to go somewhere else-- because they are going to go somewhere else to get the tobacco--" Task says, "Those are sales that those businesses are going to lose."
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The board has been weighing a ban for months. Westminster’s town health agent, Elizabeth Swedberg, cited the difficulty the board is having staying ahead tobacco companies’ marketing campaigns. Also, the board has concerns over new products like bubble gum-flavored cigars.
A spokesperson for Altria Group, which owns Philip Morris USA, told the Associated Press the measure would hurt the small town's economy.
"We believe businesses should be able to choose which products they carry," Altria's David Sutton said. "The proposed regulations, if enacted, would fundamentally alter these businesses and would likely cost Westminster jobs."
There is no public record of any other town in the U.S. that prohibits the sale of tobacco products. Tobacco control advocates contacted by The Boston Globe and the Associated Press could not identify another community with such a ban.
The concern by some is the slippery slope. Task hopes the town would put the measure to a popular vote before enacting it. He says, “It echoes the soda ban former mayor Michael Bloomberg tried to do here in New York City. Again, this is on a much smaller scale.”
“If they ban cigarettes, are they going to ban a double cheeseburger or something like that? Where does this end?” asks Task. “That is the question we all have to ask ourselves.”
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