Key Points: 

• North Carolina’s vaping industry provided more than $801 million in economic activity in 2018 while generating 3,645 direct vaping-related jobs. Sales of disposables and prefilled cartridges in North Carolina exceeded $16.5 million in 2016.

• As of January 23, 2020, NCDHHHS has reported 76 cases of vaping-related lung injuries. An earlier report on a subset of cases noted that 80 percent of patients reported vaping THC. NCDHHS earns a C for its transparency on vaping-related lung illnesses.  

• In 2017, only 3 percent of North Carolina high school students reported daily e-cigarette use, only a quarter cited using vapor products because of flavors. More data is needed.   

• Only 10 percent of FDA retail compliance checks in North Carolina resulted in sales of e-cigarettes to minors from January 1, 2018 to September 30, 2019.

• North Carolina spends very little on tobacco prevention. In 2019, North Carolina dedicated only $2.4 million to tobacco control programs including education and prevention, or less than 1 percent of what the state received in tobacco settlement payments and taxes.