The only reason i quit cigarettes after trying every other alternative was learning about Vape Products about three years ago. I havent touched a cigarette in three years. You talk about Harm Reduction, and thats exactly what this is. Im here for the same reasons same reasons as the people that are worried about our children, our youth. Im on the same side as them. I believe we do need to have Harm Reduction, but theyre looking at this in a wrong way with poor evidence and poor scientific study, so i want to share is a study done by truth. Org which, of course, is pushing an agenda now that makes Vape Products look like theyre pushing it directly to kids, which i dont think thats true and accurate, but this study is done called rethinking nicotine and its effects by raymond niyura, ph. D. Director of science and training at the National Institute for Tobacco Research and policy so its at the truth initiative, truth. Org. And he says through this study, most of the psychological harm attributed to cigarette smoking derivatives are drives from the toxicants and tobacco in combustion products. Preventible morbidity and more mortallity has been related to combustible products, not nicotine itself. Nicotine is really no clerk thank you. Next speaker. Supervisor walton and i want to remind everyone in the overflow room, now will be the time that you want to come over for Public Comment, so if we have anyone in the overflow room that wants to come over for Public Comment, now would be the time to come over. Hi. My name is Tanner Wakefield . The tobacco generally jool has had the opportunity to submit for f. D. A. Approval for three years, but it didnt, so why should Public Health be punished for its negligence . These arent a Harm Reduction product. Far more youth are being addicted to nicotine than switching from cigarettes. Kids have initiated ecigarette use in droves because it appears safer, and it appears with less risk. As a result, more people are putting themselves at risk with nicotine addiction. My grandpa, when he used cigarettes at 14, he continues to use nicotine at 89. Should we abandon kids to a lifelong addiction at the hands of predatory companies . So i urge you to ban this. Thank you. My name is tony. I just wanted to say i grew up at a time when we didnt have access to things like vaporizers to nicotine. I lost people to cigarettes because they didnt have the ability to things like that. Nicotine helped us wipe out the plague when we didnt have antibiotics in the 16th century. It was a brutal thing, then as in the 80s and 90s, and we were still not having access to thipgs like the internet and jool pods. Any way, the point is those are things that have saved lives, and thats why they exist, and thats why they need to be accessible to people. Thank you. Supervisor mandelman all right. Are there any other members of the public who would like to speak on this item before we close Public Comment . Seeing none, Public Comment is now closed. Colleagues . I may say some things, so if you want to have the final word. Supervisor walton thank you so much, chair mandelman. First, i definitely just want to thank everyone for coming out here today. I know its friday morning we started an hour into friday afternoon. I also want to thank the following organizations and people who have been instrumental in this work, and this is not a definitive list, but the San Francisco youth commission, San Francisco marin medical society, San Francisco tobacco free project, american heart association, parents against vaping ecigarettes, the department of Public Health, the center for disease control, henny kelly, and of course the coauthor of ordinance, City AttorneyDennis Herrera in his continuing fight to help young people. I just want to touch on some conversations with merchants because definitely not an attack on our Small Businesses, but it is an attack on harmful products. I ha being a liquor and lottery grocer, a smoke shop, a tobacco vendor does not give you the right to sell 100 harmful products. There are so many businesses working hard to provide Healthy Products and goods to our communities. We will work to help Small Businesses succeed, but i will not put profits over the health of our youth. I want to thank you all again for coming out, and i hope that we can all be supportive of this ordinance, so we can really work to keep harmful products like vape away from young people and away from general public and general as nicotine kills. Thank you. Supervisor mandelman thank you, supervisor walton. I just unless supervisor stefani has anything you want to say . Not yet. Youre percolating. All right. Ill say a few things. Ive had a few concerns about this proposal. I actually heard all of them addressed and this is one of the reasons we have these hearings, elected officials. Early on, we heard from someone on the issue of Harm Reduction, and whether whether ecigarettes are a form of Harm Reduction, we should be thinking about them in that way. I have wrestled, you know, as the author of legislation furthering our Movement Toward legalization of cannabis in the city and allowing temporary permits for cannabis events. Also have wrestled with the question whether prohibition is the right approach with any kind of drugs. And then ive had concerns about impacts on Small Businesses. I did hear, i thought, compelling responses to each of those concerns today. We heard pretty unequivocally from the Public Health experts who have been working on cigarettes and tobacco for a long, long time that they do not view ecigarettes as Harm Reduction. And although there are people who are speculating that maybe that is what it is, im not hearing that from the medical community, which is a community that i trust on on that question. So that was compelling for me. The question of prohibition is, in some ways harder, and as we think about how to deal with new technology is something to grapple with, but this is something that the f. D. A. Needs to do to determine whether and how danger a product this is. Its more to educate a public that may not believe that e. Cigarettes are harmful and a strategy for dealing with a new product. And were hearing loud and clear from the Tobacco Control experts that this is a really dangerous product. The last issue that is still kind of with me, and im glad for your remarks just a moment ago is that time and again, we regulate and Small Business pays the price. And many of these corner stores, whatever else theyre selling, they are linchpin important entities in their community. They are selling products that we would rather people not purchase, but theyre selling things that people need, and food, and theyre often eyes on the streets, and theyre often holding down some of the most dangerous corners in the city. So i would hope that in the next 1. 5 weeks i think were going to forward this with a full positive recommendation, but i hope there can be some conversation between you and supervisor fewer, and we will have more to offer this community by the time we approve this than thoughts and prayers but actually a program and a plan and a way to move forward with some tangible support for our struggling Small Businesses, so im hoping that will come to us, so for the moment, im comfortable voting forward this. Supervisor stefani . Supervisor stefani thank you. You said just about everything i want to say. I want to echo the statements of supervisor mandelman. With regards to ecigarettes being Harm Reduction. We know the f. D. A. Is taking a look at this, and knowing that supervisor fewer will be working with supervisor walton on the impacts to Small Business is something that i care about. But i just want to acknowledge the mom from district 2 that came up. Im a mom, too, and i know everything that youre feeling, everything thats being talked about in the Parent Community and our schools, and it is a concern. I just want you to know that you have been heard, and i think that a lot of parents have raised these same concerns, so just thank you to everyone who came out, and with that, i will hand it back over. Supervisor mandelman supervisor walton, i would lwo like to make a motion to forward this to the full board with a positive recommendation . Supervisor walton i would like to make a motion to move this to the full board with a positive recommendation. Supervisor mandelman and then, i would like to rescind item 4. There was some back and forth but it was pointed out by our counsel that the 27th is the day after the last budget conversation that could go very, very late. I believe there is going to be a psns hearing on the 27th probably regardless, but we may not want to have that item on. Well have the opportunity to work with president yee whether to have it on the 27th or at a later date. So i will vote to have us resint and then continue that rescind and then continue that item to the call of the chair. So i will make a motion to rescind item 4, and we can take that without objection. And then, i will make a motion to continue item 4 to the call of the chair, and we can take that without objection. And mr. Clerk, do we have any further business . Clerk there is no further businessm business. Supervisor mandelman okay. Well, then, fantastic. We are adjourned. Thank you. My name is doctor ellen moffett, i am an assistant medical examiner for the city and county of San Francisco. I perform autopsy, review medical records and write reports. Also integrate other sorts of testing data to determine cause and manner of death. I have been here at this facility since i moved here in november, and previous to that at the old facility. I was worried when we moved here that because this building is so much larger that i wouldnt see people every day. I would miss my personal interactions with the other employees, but that hasnt been the case. This building is very nice. We have lovely autopsy tables and i do get to go upstairs and down stairs several times a day to see everyone else i work with. We have a bond like any other group of employees that work for a specific agency in San Francisco. We work closely on each case to determine the best cause of death, and we also interact with family members of the diseased. That brings us closer together also. I am an investigator two at the office of the chief until examiner in San Francisco. As an investigator here i investigate all manners of death that come through our jurisdiction. I go to the field Interview Police officers, detectives, family members, physicians, anyone who might be involved with the death. Additionally i take any property with the deceased individual and take care and custody of that. I maintain the chain and custody for court purposes if that becomes an issue later and notify next of kin and make any additional follow up phone callsness with that particular death. I am dealing with people at the worst possible time in their lives delivering the worst news they could get. I work with the family to help them through the grieving process. I am ricky moore, a clerk at the San Francisco medical examiners office. I assist the pathology and toxicology and Investigative Team around work close with the families, loved ones and funeral establishment. I started at the old facility. The building was old, vintage. We had issues with plumbing and things like that. I had a tiny desk. I feet very happy to be here in the new digs where i actually have room to do my work. I am sue pairing, the toxicologist supervisor. We test for alcohol, drugs and poisons and biological substances. I oversee all of the lab operations. The forensic operation here we perform the toxicology testing for the Human Performance and the case in the city of San Francisco. We collect evidence at the scene. A woman was killed after a robbery homicide, and the dna collected from the zip ties she was bound with ended up being a cold hit to the suspect. That was the only investigative link collecting the scene to the suspect. It is nice to get the feedback. We do a lot of work and you dont hear the result. Once in a while you heard it had an impact on somebody. You can bring justice to what happened. We are able to take what we due to the next level. Many of our counterparts in other states, cities or countries dont have the resources and dont have the beautiful building and the equipmentness to really advance what we are doing. Sometimes we go to court. Whoever is on call may be called out of the office to go to various portions of the city to investigate suspicious deaths. We do whatever we can to get our job done. When we think that a case has a natural cause of death and it turns out to be another natural cause of death. Unexpected findings are fun. I have a prior background in law enforcement. I was a Police Officer for 8 years. I handled homicides and suicides. I had been around Death Investigation type scenes. As a Police Officer we only handled minimal components then it was turned over to the coroner or the detective division. I am intrigued with those types of calls. I wondered why someone died. I have an extremely supportive family. Older children say, mom, how was your day. I can give minor details and i have an amazing spouse always willing to listen to any and all details of my day. Without that it would be really hard to deal with the negative components of this job. Being i am a native of San Francisco and grew up in the community. I come across that a lot where i may know a loved one coming from the back way or a loved one seeking answers for their deceased. There are a lot of cases where i may feel affected by it. If from is a child involved or things like that. I try to not bring it home and not let it affect me. When i tell people i work at the medical examiners office. Whawhat do you do . The autopsy . I deal with the a with the enou with the administrative and the families. Most of the time work here is very enjoyable. After i started working with dead people, i had just gotten married and one night i woke up in a cold sweat. I thought there was somebody dead . My bed. I rolled over and poked the body. Sure enough, it was my husband who grumbled and went back to sleep. This job does have lingering effects. In terms of why did you want to go into this . I loved science growing up but i didnt want to be a doctor and didnt want to be a pharmacist. The more i learned about forensics how interested i was of the perfect combination between Applied Science and criminal justice. If you are interested in finding out the facts and truth seeking to find out what happened, anybody interested in that has a place in this field. Being a woman we just need to go for it and dont let anyone fail you, you cant be. With regard to this position in comparison to crime dramas out there, i would say there might be some minor correlations. Lets face it, we arent hollywood, we are real world. Yes we collect evidence. We want to preserve that. We are not scanning fingerprints in the field like a Hollywood Television show. Families say thank you for what you do, for me that is extremely fulfilling. Somebody has to do my job. If i can make a situation that is really negative for someone more positive, then i feel like i am doing the right thing for the city of San Francisco. A way of life in san o. Francisco. When the next major quake hits, the city hopes a new law requiring seismic upgrades to five story buildings will help keep more residents safe and sound. Tell me a little about the soft Story Program. What is it . Its a program the mayor signed into law about a year and a half ago and the whole idea behind it was to help homeowners strengthen buildings so that they would not collapse. Did you the soft Story Program apply to all buildings or building that were built in a certain time frame . It only applies to buildings built in the time frame of 1978 and earlier. Its aimed at wood framed buildings that are three or more stories and five or more units. But the openings at the garage level and the street level arent supported in many buildings. And without the support during a major earthquake, they are expected to pancake and flatten ~. Many of the buildings in this program are under rent control so its to everybodys advantage to do the work and make sure they protect their investment and their tenant. Notices have gone out to more than 6,000 owners of potentially atrisk properties but fewer than onethird have responded and thousands might miss an important deadline in september to tell the city what they plan to do. Lets talk worst case scenario. What happens in a collapse . Buildings have the tendency of rolling over. The first soft story walls lean over and the building collapse. In an earthquake the building is a total loss. Can you describe what kind of strengthening is involved in the retrofit . One of the basic concepts, you want to think of this building kind of like