“Vaping” and electronic cigarettes are relatively new, but the ways they are being marketed are not. Back in the 1970s, an R.J. Reynolds executive wrote, “if our company is to survive and prosper, over the long term we must get our share of the youth market.” The sales team at Lorillard echoed, “the base of our business is the high school student.”

Over the following decades, the tobacco industry created Joe Camel, marketed heavily around high schools, and created candy-flavored tobacco products that target kids. Our youth are still being targeted, especially with menthol cigarettes and flavored vaping liquids.

The American Lung Association states, “Youth are routinely bombarded with advertising for flavored tobacco and e-cigarettes every time they walk into a neighborhood convenience store. It’s clear that these products with candy themes and colorful packaging are geared towards teens.”

In June, San Francisco voters upheld a new tobacco law by a vote of 68 to 32 percent to ban the sale of all flavorings, including menthol, in tobacco products including electronic cigarettes. The Marin County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday will consider a Marin menthol and flavored tobacco ban modeled after the San Francisco legislation.

San Francisco and Marin, both ranked among California’s healthiest counties, have long histories of progressive health policy. The two counties approved the 2012 and 2016 statewide tobacco taxes by the widest margins across our state. The new Marin legislation addresses a troubling increase in e-cigarette use among youth. The 2016 California Healthy Kids Survey found that 39 percent of Marin County 11th-graders had tried an e-cigarette. The science is clear that this is harmful. A National Institutes of Health study found that teens who use e-cigarettes are more likely to smoke conventional cigarettes.

According to a recent UC San Francisco report, daily e-cigarette use doubles the risk of heart attack. Some teens are adding marijuana to their vaping products. Research published in the journal Pediatrics found vaping exposes teens to toxic, cancer-causing chemicals.

In 2011, a Food and Drug Administration Advisory Committee concluded that “removal of menthol cigarettes from the marketplace would benefit public health in the United States.” But as with any public health legislation that impacts corporate profits, resistance from the tobacco industry is likely. Fears about possible criminalization and arrests for tobacco sale or use may be raised. In fact, the only penalty will be for retailers to surrender their tobacco sales licenses if they violate the ban.

Opponents may say the ban will drive small businesses out of Marin. This was said back when cities banned smoking in restaurants — and that didn’t prove true either.

Smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, claiming up to 500,000 lives annually. Protecting our youth from products that increase the risk of life-long smoking addiction is sound public health policy. The vast majority of smokers start while young.

We must do all we can to stop the alarming trend of addictive e-cigarette and kid-friendly flavored tobacco products that are reversing decades of progress toward raising a tobacco-free generation. Our youth deserve the chance at a healthy start in their adult lives and to a future that is free from addiction. We all share the responsibility to make sure that they get this chance.

Please ask your supervisor to vote yes, and join the San Francisco Marin Medical Society, Marin County Office of Education, American Heart Association, California Medical Association, American Cancer Society, parents, and teachers among many others in this important public health policy.

Dr. John Maa is president of the San Francisco Marin Medical Society and chief of general and acute care surgery at Marin General Hospital; Dr. Matt Willis is the Marin County public health officer; and Steve Heilig is public health director for the San Francisco Medical Society and a senior staffer at Commonweal in Bolinas.