IOWA
Analysis, Commentary, Musings
IOWA
Analysis, Commentary, Musings
VERMONT
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More than 18,000 Vermont high school students participated in the biannual survey questionnaire known as the 2019 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS).
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According to the results, in 2019, 50 percent of Vermont high school students reported ever using an electronic cigarette or vapor product.
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26 percent reported having used an e-cigarette in the past 30 days.
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Only 8 percent reported using a vapor product every day in the 30 days prior to the survey.
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80 percent of Vermont high school students reported using a “JUUL/rechargeable pod” device, while only 8 percent reported using a larger, mod device commonly sold in vape shops
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10 percent of current e-cigarette users cited flavors as a primary reason for using e-cigarettes, while 17 percent of Vermont high school students reported using e-cigarettes because their family and/or friends used them
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52 percent of Vermont high schoolers under the age of 18 reported using a vapor product that they borrowed and/or was given to them. Only 3 percent of students under age 18 reported buying e-cigarettes online.
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Flavors are an essential component in tobacco harm reduction.
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In 2015, an online survey of more than 27,000 American adult vapers found that 72 percent of respondents “credit[ed] interesting flavors with helping them quit.”
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A 2018 survey of nearly 70,000 American adult vapers “found flavors play a vital role in the use of electronic cigarettes and vaping devices.” 83.2 percent and 72.3 percent of survey respondents reported vaping fruit and dessert flavors, respectively, “at least some of the time.”
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On January 2, 2020, FDA issued final guidance that bans the sales of “flavored, cartridge-based [e-cigarette] products,” beginning February 6, 2020. The ban should help reduce Vermont youth e-cigarette use, as in 2019, 80 percent of current e-cigarette users cited using such products.
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In 2018, the vaping industry created 159 direct vaping-related jobs, which generated $5.4 million in wages alone, and created a total economic impact in 2018 of more than $34 million, including $7 million in state taxes
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In 2019, 2019, Vermont received an estimated $99.8 million in tobacco taxes and tobacco settlement payments, yet allocated only $3.8 million, or 3 percent, on funding tobacco control programs.
TOBACCO HARM REDUCTION 101: VERMONT
January 13, 2020
Key Points:
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Vermont’s vaping industry provided more than $34 million in economic activity in 2018 while generating 159 direct vaping-related jobs. Sales of disposables and prefilled cartridges in Vermont exceeded $1 million in 2016.
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As of December 31, 2019, VDH has reported three cases of vaping-related lung illnesses, and “most patients” report vaping THC, but does not offer information on ages, gender, or specific case counts. VDH earns a D for its reporting on vaping-related lung illnesses.
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In 2018, only 1.5 percent of Vermont high school students reported daily vapor use. Only 17 percent reported “flavors” for e-cigarette use. More data is needed.
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Only 1 percent of FDA retail compliance checks in Vermont resulted in sales of e-cigarettes to minors from January 1, 2018 to September 30, 2019.
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Vermont spends very little on tobacco prevention. In 2019, Vermont dedicated only $3.8 million on tobacco control, or 3 percent of what the state received in tobacco settlement payments and taxes.
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A proposal in the General Assembly would apply the state’s “92% wholesale price tax on other tobacco products to electronic cigarettes and their paraphernalia.”
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According to the bill’s fiscal analysis, the legislation would generate $1.1 million in revenue in fiscal year 2022.
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All revenue generated is to be deposited into the State General Fund.
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Such legislation threatens the health gains that e-cigarettes and vaping devices provide as tobacco harm reduction tools.
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In 2018, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine found switching from combustible tobacco cigarettes to e-cigarettes “results in reduced short-term adverse health outcomes in several organ systems.”
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The same year, the American Cancer Society acknowledged “the exclusive use of e-cigarettes is preferable to continuing to smoke combustible cigarettes.”
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In 2016, the Royal College of Physicians found e-cigarette use “unlikely to exceed 5% of the harm from smoking tobacco,” concluding that it is “in the interest of public health … to promote the use of e-cigarettes.
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State Budget Solutions estimated states could have saved $48 million in Medicaid spending if all Medicaid recipients who smoked switched to e-cigarettes.
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The proposed legislation in Vermont points to a 40 percent wholesale tax that was imposed on vaping products in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 2016 and fails to acknowledge the negative economic consequences of such an extreme tax.
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By 2017, Pennsylvania’s 40 percent wholesale tax “resulted in the closure of more than 100 small businesses and the loss of several hundred jobs” in the Commonwealth.
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Research indicates that these businesses “generate an annual non-online sales of more than $300,000 per store,” a monthly average of about $26,000.
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Lawmakers interested in protecting public health in Vermont should adjust how they currently use tobacco funds.
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In 2018, “Vermont received $106.1 million (estimated) in tobacco settlement payments and taxes.” In the same year, the state spent $3.6 million, three percent of tobacco funding received on tobacco control efforts including education and cessation.
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