Texas Bill to Regulate Vapor Products Over the past few years, electronic cigarettes, also commonly referred to as e-cigarettes or vapor, have been trending all over the state of Texas as a tobacco alternative, but this could all change if a bill to regulate these products is passed in this legislative session. House Bill 646, which was filed by Representative Nicole Collier, will place e-cigarettes under the same regulation standards as tobacco cigarettes. This means that Texas will ban sales of vapor products to minors under the age of 18, stop usage in public enclosed spaces and prohibit vapor product advertising within 1,000 feet of schools. Allowing minors to engage in the consumption of these products can be a direct gateway to the use of cigarettes and other harmful habits, Rep. Collier wrote in her announcement. It is unfortunate that businesses are allowed to manufacture and market dangerous goods that are clearly designed to appeal to children such as bubble gum flavored vapors and especially that they are allowed to do so in such close proximity to schools. Courtney Mendoza, owner of All About Vapor, started her business with her mother in 2011 to bring custom blended vapor products to the Austin and Round Rock areas. Mendoza supports Collier s initiative to legally prohibit minors from purchasing vapor products but doesn t see the connection between offering different flavors and attracting children. When it comes to flavors targeting children, now that is nonsense. Adults prefer flavors. That doesn t mean it is for kids, Mendoza said. It just means we get bored with tobacco and to be honest, a lot of customers don t want any reminders of their traditional tobacco cigarettes. According to Collier s press release, she filed the bill to prevent minors from being subjected to potentially harmful substances. Although this bill does mainly target this issue, it will also require vapor advertisers to pay a 10 percent fee to the state.
Mendoza s vapor shops have prospered in the past few years, but she is concerned about the impact that this tax could have on her customers. It could cripple our industry. Vendors pay the state a lot of money in sales tax as it is. For this to be passed on to the consumer is even worse, Mendoza said. If anything, they should be rewarded with a tax break for making a healthier decision. Since the bill will cause the price of e-cigarettes to increase due to taxation, users might be less likely to use e-cigarettes instead of tobacco. Amanda Soto, a 24-year-old who smoked vapor for about two years, said one of the main reasons she switched to e-cigarettes was because they are significantly cheaper than tobacco. According to the American Lung Association, the average retail price for a pack of cigarettes in Texas is about $6. This means that the average pack-a-day smoker would spend almost $200 per month on cigarettes. Vapor products, on the other hand, are significantly cheaper costing the average pack-a-day smoker about $40 a month. Even though House Bill 646 claims it is attempting to protect the health of minors, there could also be more negative effects related to the regulation of vapor products. Cindy Antoniello, who smoked for many years prior to making the switch to e-cigarettes, said she would not have been able to quit using nicotine if it hadn t been for making this transition. My health is better and I can breathe better, Antoniello said. I don t have a constant cough and I am currently on zero milligrams of nicotine per day. Antoniello thinks it is unfortunate that regulation of vapor products could cause less people to make the initial switch and might further impede others from quitting smoking altogether.
I am against regulation, Antoniello said. The government seems to want to regulate everything in our lives and it is likely just for the tax benefits. However, Soto feels very differently about regulating vapor products. Soto said that her stepfather went to the doctor and discovered that his use of e-cigarettes caused him to contract pneumonia. After using vapor products for two years, Soto abandoned the habit completely. I think e-cigarettes should be regulated like tobacco because it is a nicotine product and it could potentially harm your health, Soto said. It can ensure fines are brought to minors who have them and bring taxes for the state. Dr. Jennifer Bard, director of the health law program at Texas Tech University, teaches classes such as Constitutional Issues in Health Law and Legal Issues in Human Subject Research where she says the issue of e-cigarette regulation has become an increasingly debated issue. Bard has come to the conclusion that e-cigarettes should be regulated and feels strongly that adolescents should be discouraged from using vapor products through the use of FDA and statewide mandates. Any regulation of e-cigarettes has to be along the lines of making them less available to minors, Bard said. Even if they are harmless, they are a gateway for children to use real cigarettes. But this brings up two very important questions in the many arguments that are seen on both sides of the issue. Are e-cigarettes really healthier than traditional tobacco cigarettes and if so do they lead to using traditional cigarettes later on in life? Dr. Konstantinos Farsalinos, who is a researcher at the University of Patra in Greece, has been studying the effects that e-cigarettes have on users health since 2011. During this time, he created an online blog dedicated to sharing his, as well as other scientists, research with others.
2,500 people have already registered to receive the blog s newsletter. Many of these subscribers are reputable medical institutions, organizations and researchers. Throughout the course of his research, Farsalinos has determined that e-cigarettes are far less harmful than traditional cigarettes. We do not need long-term studies to understand that they are less harmful. Studies are needed to quantify the level of harm reduction, Farsalinos said. I would estimate that e- cigarettes are probably 95 percent safer than cigarettes, leaving a 5 percent residual risk. But what about nicotine levels? Nicotine is an addictive substance that can cause users to build up a tolerance to the chemical. Looking at this well-known fact, would it be possible for e- cigarette users to pick up traditional smoking? According to Farsalinos, it is actually quite the opposite. He believes that e-cigarettes are beneficial in helping smokers reduce their intake of nicotine. Most of them will use the e-cigarettes long term, but this is much better than smoking. Of course, there will be some people who use them as a new habit, Farsalinos said. Although this is not welcomed, it is expected to happen and cannot be a reason to restrict use and deprive smokers from a life-saving product. For this reason, Farsalinos is highly opinionated concerning which types of e-cigarette regulation are acceptable. We are now seeing regulatory efforts which, instead of promoting e-cigarettes as smoking alternatives, are in reality restricting availability and variability, and discourage their use by smokers. Such tactics are definitely protecting the tobacco cigarette market, Farsalinos said. Proper regulation is needed to make sure that products are of acceptable quality, but the magic word is proper, not regulation.
There are other studies that delve deeper into this issue of quality. Many of these studies analyze the chemicals in vapor products. According to a report that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, many samples taken from the aerosol of e-cigarettes showed that more than 2 percent of the released chemicals were formaldehyde-releasing agents, which is higher than the amount of nicotine levels. However, the American Vaping Association claims that this particular study is based on faulty experiments because the machine that was used did not resemble human vaping. Charlie Hodge, the marketing and public relations manager of All About Vapor, agrees that this study was inaccurate and taken out of context. Liquid was heated beyond any range any commercial device could produce, Hodge said. Meaning if vaped at proper temperature not only is there no formaldehyde but there are no carcinogens compared with over 60 per combustible cigarette. Although there is still much debate concerning the health effects related to smoking e- cigarettes, regulation of these products could result in consumers paying more for their nicotine. If House Bill 646 does pass in this legislative session, Mendoza hopes that the vapor community will remain strong and continue to trust her business. My mother and I decided, after numerous request by customers, to move forward with our third location, Mendoza said. We treat everyone that walks through our doors or calls our phone like family. Wouldn t you want to spread that around?