I had just bought a home in Aurora three years ago when I found out I was going to become a mom. I quickly found out that the public perception of Aurora was that it was an unsuitable place to raise small children. What I experienced was very different: a warm, diverse community of people from all walks of life, most of whom had small children playing in the backyards neighboring mine on the weekends. It’s the kind of place where we all know each other’s first names and have an annual barbecue, where people have lived in the same home for decades, where the same guy sets off small fireworks in his driveway every Fourth of July.

As someone who has worked in health policy communications for more than 10 years, most of it in tobacco control, I am more familiar than most with the ways the tobacco industry has interfered with so many Americans’ health and longevity. Not by accident, but by deliberately lying about their products’ addictiveness and deadliness, and by preying on those they thought were most vulnerable.

As the communications lead for the Colorado Tobacco Education and Prevention Partnership, I spent years speaking with the public and state lawmakers about the damage the tobacco industry had done in our state, which at the time had the highest rate of youth vaping in the nation. A bipartisan group of Colorado’s leaders took swift and decisive action, including a stronger statewide tobacco retailer license, an evidence-based policy to reduce tobacco sales to minors. Our collective response reduced the youth vaping rate from 27% to 9%.

In my family, as in so many others, tobacco addiction is generational. My dad had his first cigarette at 12, and although he tried many times, he couldn’t quit for more than 50 years. Today he still has cravings he manages with nicotine replacement gum, which he expects to use for the rest of his life. I had my brush with smoking while serving as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in the Gambia, West Africa, along with most of my fellow volunteers, though I quit when I got home.

Now I wonder what my daughter’s experience will be as the tobacco industry’s next target. Less than 20 miles away from our home, Phillip Morris International has opened a $600 million manufacturing facility for Zyn, the latest in a long line of products the industry claims reduce harm by giving smokers a safer alternative, but that never ultimately fails to addict the next generation.

Children are at risk in Aurora, a place that has twice as many tobacco retailers as grocery stores. Our high concentration of tobacco retailers, especially around schools, shapes the environment our kids grow up in. Given that, it’s unsurprising but still disappointing that 85% of Aurora Public Schools students were not refused when they attempted to buy tobacco or nicotine products from a retailer, according to Healthy Kids Colorado Survey results. We fought, together, to hold tobacco retailers accountable in Colorado, but in many communities, the state law isn’t doing enough.

A coalition led by Aurora’s young people, educators, and medical providers is taking action here to protect our kids. A new ordinance is under consideration by our city council, one that would reward ethical business practice and ensure accountability. It would create infrastructure to increase compliance checks and clear communication of licensing requirements. It would also curtail growth in the density of tobacco sellers, especially those close to schools.

Some vape shop owners have objected to the ordinance, citing language that would ban all products not regulated by the FDA. This language is under revision, and will likely not remain the same as it is now. Additionally, they complain that their product is safer and that they don’t sell to minors. It’s important to recognize that the businesses that are consistent about carding customers will benefit from this ordinance, because it will level the playing field with their competitors who are less scrupulous. Additionally, vaping has yet to materialize as the off ramp for cigarette smoking the industry promised, instead hooking another generation. Plus, vaping has its own harms. I’ll never forget the terrifying stories we heard about people hospitalized with E-Cigarette and Vaping Associated Lung Injury (EVALI).

Tobacco use is still the number one cause of preventable death in Colorado and nationally. The ability to sell these deadly products is a privilege, one that should never be taken lightly. This ordinance represents our kids asking the more than 100 tobacco retailers within 1,000 feet of their schools to do business fairly, keep their promises, and spare their friends a lifetime of addiction. I’m going to stand with them. And if there’s a hearing that doesn’t conflict with nap time, maybe my daughter will, too.

Alison Reidmohr, M.A., is a resident of Aurora and a health policy communications professional with more than 10 years of experience, including several years leading tobacco communications for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.