Hawaii lawmakers are urged to stop sales of flavored e-cigs and tobacco

State health officials and lawmakers are pushing to ban flavored tobacco products in Hawaii.

They joined the Coalition for a Tobacco-Free Hawaii’s Youth Council members Monday to launch the Flavors Hook Kids campaign with fruit and candy displays in front of the Capitol that support legislation to end the sale of flavored tobacco, including menthol.

A number of bills, including Senate Bill 1009 and House Bill 276, aim to eliminate the products in the islands. House Bill 276 will be heard today in the Health House Committee.

“We are being targeted,” said Alexis Cortes, a senior at Hawaii Pacific University. “With more than 15,000 flavors like Molokai Sweet Bread, Auntie Li Hing and POG, and packaging that looks like candy, vaping companies are clearly trying to hook me, my peers and generations to come.”

One in 4 Oahu high school students and 1 in 3 on the neighbor islands regularly use e-cigarettes, according to the state Health Department. One in 5 neighbor island children in middle school also report they regularly vape, making them 10 times more likely to end up smoking.

“It’s health terrorism to sell flavored tobacco to kids and get them addicted. It’s immoral to do that,” said Lt. Gov. Josh Green, also a Big Island physician. “And we know that the only purpose flavors such as Rocket Popsicle and Fruit Hoops have is to hook our kids on nicotine so that they become lifelong customers.”

Health Director Bruce Anderson said vaping has become an epidemic here. While Hawaii consistently ranks as the healthiest state in the country due in part to low smoking rates that fell substantially in recent decades, “the vaping epidemic jeopardizes all that progress.”

“It’s proven that youth who vape are far more likely to transition to cigarettes or become dual users, thus increasing their risk for immediate and long-term health problems,” Anderson said, adding that hypertension, heart disease and cancer, the leading causes of death in the islands, are all associated with tobacco use. “Vaping is bringing back tobacco as one of the greatest public-health threats to our state.”

What’s more, highly concentrated nicotine harms the developing brains of children and young adults, he added.

A recent study released by the American Stroke Association concluded that e-cigarette users have a 71 percent higher risk of stroke, 59 percent greater risk of heart attack and 40 percent higher chance of developing coronary heart disease.