The battle over whether Hawaii should allow sales of flavored vaping products is once again up for debate at the state Legislature.
Two bills — Senate Bill 3118 and House Bill 1570 — seek to prohibit the sale or distribution of all flavored tobacco and vaping products in Hawaii to prevent youths from getting addicted to them.
SB 3118 seeks to ban the sale of flavored tobacco products and mislabeled e-liquid products, with a $500 fine for the first violation and up to $2,000 for subsequent ones. HB 1570 also seeks to ban the sale of flavored tobacco products, with similar fines, but comes with a long list of stringent conditions.
The Coalition for a Tobacco-Free Hawaii is pushing once again for measures it believes will stem the growing tide of local youths addicted to vaping. Those who are opposed to the ban include businesses that sell vaping products, along with retail trade groups that say banning them is not the right approach to addressing the problem.
On Monday, youth advocates and legislators voiced their support for the ban on the state Capitol’s front lawn with a display of slippers representing the lives lost to tobacco-related illnesses.
Punahou School senior Zoey Duan of the coalition’s Youth Council said the display — 13 feet long, 8 feet tall and 10 feet deep — is large enough to hold the slippers of the estimated 21,000 Hawaii youths whose lives will be lost due to tobacco-related illnesses if smoking rates do not change.
The coalition says vaping in Hawaii is at an epidemic level, with not only more young people, but younger kids getting hooked on nicotine.
One out of every 5 students in middle school, and 1 out of every 3 students in high school now report using e-cigarettes regularly, according to the coalition, with rates even higher on neighbor isles. Most said they started tobacco use with flavored products.
“The most disturbing thing we’re hearing from principals is that this is now reaching the elementary-level school kids,” said Scott Stensrud, statewide youth coordinator. “Now elementary schools are asking us for information on how do we help kids quit.”
Logan Lau, a Kamehameha Schools senior, said menthol-flavored products have helped hook generations of Native Hawaiian, African American and Filipino youth through targeted media campaigns.
In Hawaii, 78% of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander smokers use menthol cigarettes.
“This is the primary reason why the Youth Council is continuing our efforts to end the sale of all flavored tobacco products, including menthol,” Lau said, “to really put an end to this long history and legacy of tobacco companies exploiting children and racial minorities for profit.”
HB 1570, introduced by Rep. Scot Matayoshi, has morphed from a straightforward ban on flavored tobacco products to one with a laundry list of detailed requirements.
The new version requires the state Department of Health to post online monthly updates of all deposits and expenditures from tobacco settlement funds along with annual reports to the Legislature.
In addition, DOH has to establish a standardized testing protocol for the presence of flavoring in all tobacco products and post the results, among other requirements.
Matayoshi said this is his third year introducing a bill attempting to ban flavored vaping products, but efforts have been ongoing for much longer. He was miffed as to why it hasn’t happened yet.
“We know the health consequences already,” he said. “We know how dangerous nicotine is to developing brains. We know how addictive it is. We know all the long-term health consequences of flavored vaping products, and we still stand here as a Legislature not banning flavored vaping products.”
He supports the original version of the House bill he introduced, a straightforward ban on flavored tobacco products. The amendments, he said, were added by the House Health Committee but appear to have little community support.
Matayoshi said he is motivated as a former middle school teacher and sees his former students as the targets of the vaping companies.
Amanda Fernandes, Hawaii Public Health Institute policy and advocacy director, said tobacco companies are intentionally marketing flavored products to children, with candy flavors such as “strawberry freeze,” a combination of strawberry and menthol, POG and cotton candy.
Some products are made to look like juice boxes, and they are hooking young kids.
“And even if you believe (the companies) aren’t intentionally doing so, they know at this point that is the effect,” she said.
Some youths testified in support of the Senate bill, saying their friends have become hooked on e-cigarettes and that vaping is so common in some school bathroom stalls that they avoid them altogether.
The Senate bill has the support of the Hawaii Children’s Action Network, AlohaCare, the Hawaii State Teachers Association, Honolulu Youth Commission, Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs and more than a dozen neighborhood boards.
The Hawaii COPD Coalition said nicotine is known to be a highly addictive drug, with impacts on the developing brain.
John Hopkins Medicine has found other common substances present in e-liquid, or produced when it’s heated, including a food additive called diacetyl, formaldehyde and acrolein, which is most often used as a weedkiller, all of which can cause lung damage.
Kaiser Permanente Hawaii, which supports the Senate bill, said an emerging body of evidence suggests smokers may be more vulnerable to COVID-19 complications.
Opposition comes from companies that sell vaping products and trade associations.
Scott Rasak, chief operating officer of Volcano Vape Shops, said the company owns 15 locations statewide, employs over 90 full-time workers and serves thousands of adult consumers who legally purchase vaping products in Hawaii.
Rasak said bans on sales of flavored e-cigarettes and vape products have had little impact on reducing use among youths and could end up pushing them toward conventional cigarettes.
Hawaii in 2015 became the first in the nation to ban sales of tobacco and e-smoking devices to people under 21.
The Retail Merchants of Hawaii has testified in strong opposition to the Senate bill, saying it was the wrong approach.
“Banning products like tobacco and e-liquids is not the simple answer and will not deter people from purchasing it,” said RMH President Tina Yamaki. “Instead, we will see these types of items more desirable and prevalent on the black market.”
Also, RMH wants to make clear that retailers are not the ones selling the cigarettes and vaping devices to those under 21, many of whom ask their parents or older friends to buy them.
Other individuals testified it should be the “personal choice of adult individuals” to use flavored tobacco products, which should not be regulated by the government.
But Fernandes said the foundation of public health is that it is a collective responsibility.
“When I hear arguments like that, they’re straight out of big tobacco’s playbook — shifting the onus from the tobacco industry onto the individual and individual’s choice and onto the parents for youth use,” she said.
Fernandes said the opposition uses many distraction tactics, which include direct lobbying and campaign contributions.
Altria Client Services LLC, which is affiliated with Philip Morris USA Inc., spent more than $200,000 in 2021 — and more than $200,000 in 2020 — on lobbying efforts at the Legislature, according to state Ethics Commission expenditure reports.
RAI Services Co., or Reynolds American, which sells tobacco and vapor products, spent more than $59,000, while Juul spent more than $70,000 and Jocor Enterprises, doing business as Volcano e-cigarettes, spent more than $13,400 on lobbying efforts in 2021, the reports show.
