The ban on e-cigarette flavored in Hawaii's eyes to curb teens' vaping

HONOLULU – The first state to limit sales of tobacco and electronic cigarettes to 21 years and over plans a new crackdown on nicotine: the ban perfumed electronic cigarette liquids and perfumed tobacco to fight a teenage vaping spike.

Hawaii would be the first state to adopt such a ban under a bill submitted to the legislature. San Francisco was the first American city to do it.

The proposal would prohibit perfumed Electronic cigarette liquids such as Maui Mango and Cookie Monsta, as well as cloves and others perfumed tobacco products, but it would exempt menthol cigarettes and vaping liquids.

Supporters seek to make electronic cigarettes less attractive to teens, while studies show that an increasing number of high school and college students become addicted to nicotine through vaping.

"They look at the cigarettes and say," The cigarettes are disgusting. Tobacco is disgusting, "said Trish La Chica, a defender and lobbyist at the Hawaii Institute of Public Health. "So take off cotton candy, take off the the flavours that seem to belong to an ice cream shop, and they would not be attracted to start first. "

Battery-powered electronic cigarettes generally heat up perfumed nicotine solutions in an inhalable steam. They are more popular among teenagers than regular cigarettes, and most experts agree that they are less harmful than cigarettes because the vapors does not contain tar or other carcinogenic byproducts of burning tobacco.

However, there is virtually no research on the long-term effects of chemicals around the world. steam, some of which are toxic. And some researchers believe that vaping will encourage children to take cigarettes.

The US Food and Drug Administration has proposed this month to limit sales of most perfumed tobacco products at stores that check the age of the customer upon entry or that include a separate area, reserved for the elderly, for vaping products. The FDA has indicated that it will give priority to the elimination of vaping products that are clearly of interest to children, such as those whose packaging looks like juice boxes, candies or cookies.

Students told lawmakers in Hawaii last week that their clbadmates were running out of steam in bathrooms and secluded corners of the campus. Some teenagers post videos on social networks that illustrate their breathing, the students said.

"I can not continue to go to the bathroom at school and be hit in the face with a vape cloud that smells like cotton and can not work the rest of the day because of a headache, "said Paige McCurdy, a sophomore at Kapolei High School, near Honolulu, in testimony to the Legislative Assembly. "It affects students and it just has to stop."

A study conducted in 2017 by the Hawaii Department of Health revealed 16 percent college students and 26 percent high school students were current users of e-cigarettes. The number of high school students experimenting with vaping has been multiplied by four between 2011 and 2015, according to the study.

The National Youth Smoking Survey found that youth vaping had surged 78 percent between 2017 and 2018 in the United States

The Hawaii Health Agency has stated that teenage vaping is of particular concern because nicotine in adolescents may interfere with the growth of brain circuits that control attention and learning and lead to increased impulsiveness and mental disturbances. mood.

A committee of the House exempted menthol from the bill because it prohibited flavor would significantly reduce tax revenues that the state derives from menthol cigarettes. John Mizuno, chair of the House Health Committee of Representatives, said such a ban would reduce revenue by $ 15 million that would be allocated to ambulance services across the state and $ 15 million to victims of trauma to the hospital. center. His counterpart in the Senate, Senator Roz Baker, said that she opposed this change.

Opponents of the bill say that e-cigarettes play an important role in helping traditional cigarette smokers reduce or quit. They cite a recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, which found that e-cigarettes were almost twice as effective as nicotine chewing gums in helping people quit smoking.

Scott Rasak, vice president sales and marketing at VOLCANO Fine Electronic Cigarettes, said a flavor A prohibition would encourage those who vape to use traditional cigarettes.

"This bill is worth it to be pushed 75 percent of the adult community steamed to smoke cigarettes? ", did he declare.

He predicted the bill would "annihilate" Hawaii's independent retailers, such as his own, which has 16 stores and 100 employees on three islands.

Trevor Husseini, a 30-year-old software engineer, said he had been smoking at the unit for over 10 years and that he wanted to quit, but that he could not find nothing that can work before trying to vape. Since he's changed jobs, he has gradually reduced his nicotine intake in order to not run out of steam at all.

He thinks the ban would open a black market because people are ordering online businesses from the mainland.

"They will always have their juice," he said.

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. contributed $ 12 million to an unsuccessful attempt to persuade voters in San Francisco to reject his decision. flavor prohibit last year. The Hawaii proposal is not in place for a public referendum, so such expenses have not been seen here. But there were announcements opposed to the bill. Juul Labs Inc., the country's leading manufacturer of electronic cigarettes, has registered as a lobbyist in Hawaii Capitol of the State for the first time this year.

A separate bill would harmonize taxes on sales of electronic cigarettes with those of traditional cigarettes.

"By taxing them in the same way as tobacco, we hope to prevent more young people from trying it, catching it off guard, retaining it," said Baker, principal author of the second bill.

About 10 states already tax e-cigarettes, according to the Minnesota-based Public Health Law Center non-profit organization. Mark Meaney, Attorney center, said that taxes are one of the most effective ways to discourage smoking.

The State Senate has adopted versions of both bills. Both measures must be adopted by the House Finance Committee by April 5 at the latest.

Audrey McAvoy, Associated Press