Some laud e-cigarette tax, but vape shops see threat
Owners of stores that sell e-cigarettes are worried a new tax on their product could drive many of them out of business.
They say that is unfortunate because e-cigarettes are safer than traditional ones and can help smokers quit.
Anti-smoking advocates, on the other hand, lauded the tax as a way to keep e-cigarettes out of the hands of teenagers. They say smoking electronic cigarettes — also called vaping — appeals to children and makes smoking seem benign.
The Ohio budget, which Gov. Mike DeWine signed July 22 , includes a 10 cents per milliliter tax on refills for e-cigarettes, which will take effect 90 days after the budget’s signing. Raising the price of cigarettes is considered one of the most effective ways to reduce smoking rates.
“An increase in (youth) vaping has us very concerned,” said state Sen. Stephanie Kunze, a Hilliard Republican.
The tax will force stores to either absorb the cost or pass it on to customers, potentially raising the prices of refills by a third, Ohio Vapor Association President James Jarvis said. For example, a refill of the Juul e-cigarette costs $20, but the tax will raise that to almost $27.
Closing e-cigarette stores — commonly called vape shops — would hurt public health, he said, pointing to studies that show smokers are likely to quit smoking if they first transition to electronic cigarettes. The majority of his customers want to use vape products as a way to quit smoking entirely, said Jarvis, who owns several Vapor Stations stores in Ohio, including one in Gahanna.
“I tell people we have the worst business model in the world,” he said.
Vaping advocates frequently cite a 2015 study from Public Health England that showed e-cigarettes are 95% less harmful than traditional cigarettes. News outlets, however, exposed industry funding behind the Public Health Industry study. While the group has stood by its findings, other experts consider its methods flawed.
“It was 12 people that got together in a room and thought about it, and then came up with that number,” said Stan Glantz, a professor of medicine at the University of California San Francisco who has studied vaping.
The Royal College of Physicians found the 95% estimate reasonable in its own 2016 report, but Glantz’s 2018 study found vaping is more harmful overall because it reduces smoking cessation rates and encourages young non-smokers to adopt the habit.
Michael Seigel, a professor in the Boston University School of Public Health, said vaping products generally have more nicotine, but have no tobacco and don’t require combustion.
“Those are the two things that make cigarette smoking so deadly,” Seigel said. “Any time you’re inhaling something, it’s not going to be 100% safe. But on a relative scale, there’s no question that (vaping) is safer.”
But the data that shows e-cigarettes to be less harmful than traditional cigarettes comes from lab studies rather than human trials, said Peter Shields, deputy director of the cancer center at the Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital.
“Who knows what that means for people,” Shields said.
Studies that have tested vape users’ urine found fewer carcinogens, he said. “But that doesn’t mean there isn’t exposure to other bad chemicals.”
Research also suggests that a large number of e-cigarette smokers continue to use traditional cigarettes, Glantz said. And in those cases “they’re getting the worst of both worlds.”
Various studies came to different conclusions about whether e-cigarettes can help smokers quit.
A 2019 study published in the New England Journal followed a group of smokers for a year, and found that 20% of e-cigarette users quit, while only 10% of nicotine patch users did.
Those patches “are viewed as the gold standard treatment,” Seigel said. “And the fact that (e-cigarettes) performed twice as well as the gold standard is very encouraging.”
Research that finds e-cigarette use is a gateway to smoking cessation is almost always conducted in a clinical setting, meaning smokers participating in those studies also receive therapy, Peters said.
Peters welcomes new ways to quit, but said more data is needed to conclude that vaping products can get smokers off traditional cigarettes.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that youth smoking spiked by 20% from 2017 to 2018, driven largely by e-cigarette use and reversing years of decline.
E-cigarettes “seem to appeal to youth more,” said Kim Hehman, director of oncology at OhioHealth Doctor’s Hospital.
Jarvis acknowledged industry missteps in the form of flavored products with packaging that appeals to young people, but he said the industry is learning its lesson and improving its marketing.
The vaping tax will likely reduce youth vaping, Hehman said, but she suspects many teens will still be able to get their hands on the products.
Education, she said, is the best way to prevent teens from vaping.