District of Columbia Highlights

Tobacco use remains the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the United States and in the District of Columbia. To address this enormous toll, the American Lung Association calls for the following actions to be taken by the District’s elected officials:

During 2023, the American Lung Association in the District of Columbia along with a very active tobacco coalition which includes both community-based organizations and national health organizations worked closely with the city’s Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection (DLCP) and the Department of Health to ensure that the District’s law to remove all flavored tobacco products from the market was fully implemented and enforced.

As part of the original legislation passed in June of 2021, an amendment was added to allow for the consumption of hookah on site in specific age restricted businesses as long as they met certain requirements. The Lung Association is committed to continuing to support DC Department of Health in ensuring that the businesses operating currently do in fact meet these requirements and have the necessary approvals in place to continue to remain in operation. The flavors law enforcement discussion continues to highlight a broader issue that currently enforcement of tobacco related laws resides in various departments within DC Government and may not be enforced at the same level. Moving forward, advocates will encourage enforcement for all tobacco related issues be consolidated to ensure they are enforced in the most effective and consistent way. Advocates are also recommending all revenue associated with the fines be directed to enforcement efforts and to tobacco control and prevention programming.

Funding for the District’s tobacco control program remained at $1.9 million for fiscal year 2024. While the fact that funding for the tobacco control program is recurring due to earlier year’s cigarette tax increase is a good thing, the amount remains far short of the CDC-recommended level.

The American Lung Association in the District of Columbia will continue to build champions within the Council and develop a grassroots advocacy network to advance our 2024 goals which include the continued implementation and enforcement of the legislation that passed removing all flavored tobacco products from the market in the District and ensuring that tobacco-related laws are enforced in a consistent and equitable way.