IOWA
Analysis, Commentary, Musings
IOWA
Analysis, Commentary, Musings
ILLINOIS
TOBACCO HARM REDUCTION 101: ILLINOIS
January 9, 2020
Key Points:
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Illinois’s vaping industry provided more than $1.1 billion in economic activity in 2018 while generating 3,770 direct vaping-related jobs. Sales of disposables and prefilled cartridges in Illinois exceeded $30.8 million in 2016.
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As of December 19, 2019, IDPH has reported 206 cases of vaping-related lung illness, including five deaths. Earlier reports of Illinois patients found a majority of patients citing THC products. IDPH recent reports do not offer details on substances vaped. IDPH earns a D for its reporting on vaping-related lung illnesses.
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In 2018, only 4 percent of Illinois high school students reported daily use of vapor products. More data is needed.
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Only 8 percent of FDA retail compliance checks in Illinois resulted in sales of e-cigarettes to minors from January 1, 2018 to September 30, 2019.
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Illinois spends very little on tobacco prevention. In 2019, Illinois dedicated only $9.4 million on tobacco control, or less than 1 percent of what the state received in tobacco settlement payments and taxes.
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An amendment to Senate Bill 668 would create the “Flavored Tobacco Ban Act,” which would prohibit any “characterizing flavor” except tobacco flavor. Unlike other misguided flavor bans, the Illinois bill includes menthol and mint flavors.
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Lawmakers are responding to recent vaping-related hospitalizations, yet health departments continue to link these to the use of vaping devices containing tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
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A September 2019 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found 77 percent of patients reported vaping products that contained THC. Further, an October 2019 CDC report linked 78 percent of cases to use of THC vaping devices.
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Illegal THC vaping cartridges have been confiscated in Illinois.
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A 25-year-old was arrested in the fall of 2019 after police found more than $103,000 worth of marijuana and more than $5,000 of LSD at her residence. Law enforcement seized “253 THC vape pen cartridges.”
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More notably, law enforcement recently uncovered a massive “THC vape manufacturing” operation that “produced 4,000 to 5,000 vape cartridges a day.” According to officials, the ring sold THC cartridges “in Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota.”
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Flavor bans are not effective measures to reduce youth e-cigarette use.
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A 2017 study by the National Bureau of Economic Research concluded banning flavors “would result in the increased choice of combustible cigarettes.” Indeed, the authors expect e-cigarette use to decrease by approximately 10 percent if flavors are banned.
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Youth use of tobacco products is at an all-time low.
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Illinois should divert more of existing tobacco moneys into tobacco control programs.
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Illinois received an estimated $1.0688 billion in tobacco tax revenue and settlement payments in 2019, yet the Land of Lincoln only “allocated $9.1 million in state funds to tobacco control programs” in the same year.
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Illinois’ spending on tobacco control is so minimal, the Lung Foundation gave the state an F grade in 2019 for the state’s “tobacco prevention and cessation funding”—or lack thereof.
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ILLINOIS FLAVOR BAN WOULD VAPORIZE HARM REDUCTION
September 10, 2019
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H.B. 3883, also known as the Flavored Tobacco Product Ban Act, would prohibit the sale and distribution “of any flavored tobacco product.”
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Banned flavors include, but are not limited to, “tastes or aromas relating to any fruit, chocolate, vanilla, honey, candy, cocoa, dessert, alcoholic beverage, mint, wintergreen, herb, or spice.” Menthol and tobacco flavors are not included in the ban.
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The Heartland Institute analyzed results from the 2017-18 California Youth Tobacco Survey (CYTS) and found that despite flavor restrictions in some localities, youth use of e-cigarettes in those areas had increased after the bans went into place.
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A 2018 survey, conducted by researchers at the Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center, Greece, and Centre for Substance Use Research, Scotland, UK, surveyed nearly 70,000 American adults and found that 83.2 percent and 72.3 percent of survey respondents reported vaping fruit and dessert flavors, respectively.
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A 2017 study by the National Bureau of Economic Research concluded banning flavors “would result in the increased choice of combustible cigarettes.”
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E-cigarettes are at least 95 percent safer than combustible cigarettes, as first noted by Public Health England (PHE) in 2015. In 2018, PHE reiterated this claim, stating “vaping is at least 95% safer than smoking.”
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Lawmakers should divert existing tobacco moneys on programs and prevention efforts. Of the $1.1 billion Illinois received in tobacco settlement payment and taxes in 2019, the state extended only $9.1 million, or 0.08 percent, to tobacco education and prevention programs.
ILLINOIS SHOULD NOT TAX E-CIGARETTES AND VAPING DEVICES
April 4, 2019
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Senate Bill 1124 would amend the Tobacco Product Tax Act of 1995 to include e-cigarettes in the definition of tobacco products.
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The proposal would apply a 36 percent wholesale tax to all components of e-cigarettes, including “any device that employs a battery or other mechanism to heat a solution or substance to produce a vapor or aerosol intended for inhalation."
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Gov. J.B. Pritzker is a proponent of the tax, hoping to use the funds “to balance his budget proposal.”
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E-cigarettes are undoubtedly safer than combustible tobacco cigarettes.
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In 2015, Public Health England (PHE), a leading health agency in the United Kingdom similar to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, found e-cigarettes are 95 percent safer than smoking.
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In 2018, PHE reiterated this claim, finding “vaping is at least 95% safer than smoking.”
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Other public health groups, including the Royal College of Physicians, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and the American Cancer Society have also acknowledged the reduced harm of e-cigarettes.
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There is substantial evidence the use of vaping products can help states save money by reducing smoking-related health care costs.
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One study estimated that if all Medicaid recipients who smoke had switched to e-cigarettes, state Medicaid programs would have saved $48 billion in 2012.
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Another analysis used a “sample size of 1% of smokers [within] demographic groups permanently” switching. In this analysis, Medicaid savings were estimated to “be approximately $2.8 billion per 1 percent of enrollees” over the next 25 years.
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Illinois currently spends less than 1 percent of tobacco revenue on cessation and prevention efforts. In 2018, Illinois received an estimated “$1.129 billion in tobacco settlement payments and taxes,” but it spent only “7.3 million in state funds to tobacco prevention.”
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The imposition of a tax on vaping products could also have negative fiscal results. In 2016, Pennsylvania passed a 40 percent wholesale floor tax on vaping devices. Within a year of the new tax, approximately 120 vape shops closed in the commonwealth.