Michigan Democrat Continues Fight Against Teens Using E-Cigarettes

LANSING (WWJ) -- With the increased popularity of e-cigarettes, a Macomb County lawmaker is renewing his legislative efforts to tax the product and ban it from young smokers.

State Representative Henry Yanez (D-Sterling Heights) has been trying for years to regulate and tax the popular tobacco product, saying it's a public health problem not only for older people, but for younger people too.

"We could be losing the Affordable Care Act -- it's going to have an impact on individual's personal health and people are going to have to be more aware of their personal health," Yanez told WWJ's Tim Skubick.

Yanez is expected to introduce legislation that would ban e-cigarettes for young people within the next few months.

"We will raise revenue," Yanez said. "The estimated increase in revenue will be about $20 million that will go to fund anti-tobacco programs as well as helping a number of different groups, including possibly seniors who are taking a hit on Medigap insurance."

Though youth smoking rates are at an all-time low, more teenagers used e-cigarettes than smoked cigarettes in 2014, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The percentage of 12th-grade students who had ever used an e-cigarette increased from 4.7 to 16 percent from 2011 to 2015.