BUFFALO, N.Y. — With the amount of promotional money being thrown at e-cigarette advertising, it should come as no surprise that vaping is as popular as it is.
The latest numbers show spending on e-cigarette advertising rose from $6.4 million to an estimated $115 million over a three year period. And that latest figure was back in 2014.
Where are advertisers reaching young people? More than 10 million kids and teens are seeing it on the Internet. But according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention it's the retail stores, with their bright colors and striking displays, that are reaching the most kids...14.4 million of them.
Dr. Andrew Hyland says something should be done to address this. He's the Chair of the Department of Health Behavior at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center.
"The product in the retail store...the packaging itself, right there...in many ways is the primary vehicle that those things are marketed to consumers," says Dr. Hyland.
Jason Winnicki, Principal of West Seneca East High School, criticized retailers for this in his testimony before the Erie County Legislature in late January, asking county lawmakers to restrict how e-cigarettes are being marketed to minors. "When you walk into NOCO and see this or drive down the road and there's just shops, vape...colors...it's Joe Camel all over again. And it's ramped up for the 21st century."
In response to the uproar over youth vaping, Governor Andrew Cuomo attached vaping legislation to his budget this year.
The measure, as proposed, would ban retailers from displaying tobacco and e-cigarette products if children are allowed in the store. It would prohibit pharmacies from selling any tobacco or e-cigarettes, similar to a rule already in effect in Erie County. It would also raise the legal age to buy tobacco or e-cigarette products to 21.
Tobacco 21:
"Ultimately the goal is to try to eliminate or minimize, certainly minimize the sales, illegal sales to underage kids," said Dr. Hyland of the legislation. "There's pretty strong evidence that this would reduce youth initiation of products by about 15%, which might not sound like a lot but year over year over year those gains will accrue over time."
Six states have raised the tobacco age to 21. New York would be the seventh.
The Governor's measure would also give the state Department of Health power to ban flavored e-cigarette liquids, a proposal which isn't going well with vape shop owners locally.
"Vapor is not tobacco," said Thomas Snider, co-owner of Cloud Chasers in Depew. "Tobacco is dangerous. Vapor should be regulated completely separately than tobacco."
Snider says legislation outlawing flavors could put him and other vape shops out of business, "80 to 90% of what we sell here is e-liquid. And I would say 98% of that is flavored...flavored other than tobacco."
Snider recently went to Albany to lobby against the Governor's plan, "We'll continue to fight for fair laws for vapers...what else can we do?"
Snider says he already adheres closely to the T-18 law. His shop has multiple signs alerting customers that Cloud Chasers does not sell to minors. They also have an electronic ID system that scans drivers licenses and state issued identification. They have a log book documenting those that could not present identification.
Not all stores are complying:
In Erie County alone there are 841 tobacco retailers. Last year, the Health Department, with the help of local law enforcement, conducted over a thousand compliance checks. In 31 cases, stores were caught selling to minors. While that's a very small percentage, it's a marked increase from the year before.
"A T-21 bill isn't going to change that," said Snider. "You could change it to T-55. Somebody wants to smoke, they're still going to smoke."
The legislature has until April to approve the Governor's budget and even if that happens the vaping laws won't take effect until October at the earliest.
This is why school administrators and health advocates are hoping more can be done on the local level.
"We need help":
The Erie County legislature invited school principals, superintendents, resource officers, and health advocates to speak before the Health & Human Services Committee on two separate occasions in January.
"We don't have the resources to conquer this alone," said Carol Townsend, principal of Depew High School. "We need help. That's the bottom line."
"If you can ban flavors, please do that," said Winnicki to the legislators in attendance. "You need to tax the heck out of these things. Make them cost prohibitive."
Even students we talked to at Iroquois said this was a solution that might work.
"In high school, you just generally don't have that much money," said senior, Joe Sullivan. "So, if they're already like forking out 20 bucks a week to get some pods or whatever...If you make it 30 bucks they just won't have enough money to do it."
We asked Erie Co. Legislator John Bruso, and chair of the Health & Human Services Committee if lawmakers would consider raising taxes for e-cigarettes, here's his response: "I have had no conversations with that. That was actually the first time I heard that today about raising the price. I'm not looking to meddle in people's businesses. Those are entrepreneurs that are out there. The product again was designed for over 21."
Bruso added that the Erie County Legislature is seriously considering a T-21 law, especially since dozens of other counties and municipalities in New York State have already raised the legal age to buy these products from 18 to 21.
Erie County Legislator Thomas Loughran blamed the FDA for the problems now being left at the feet of state and local legislators, saying more should have been done by federal regulators when the vaping industry was in its infancy.
In response to our stories on youth vaping and Juuling, Juul Labs spokesperson, Ted Kwong, issued the following statement:
“JUUL Labs shares a common goal with policy makers, regulators, parents, school officials, and community stakeholders – preventing youth from initiating on nicotine. We are committed to preventing youth access of JUUL products, and no young person or non-nicotine user should ever try JUUL. We cannot fulfill our mission to provide the world’s one billion adult smokers with a true alternative to combustible cigarettes if youth use continues unabated. As we said before, our intent was never to have youth use JUUL products. We have taken dramatic action to contribute to solve this problem, which is why we implemented the JUUL Labs Action Plan to address underage use of JUUL products.
“We suspended the distribution of certain flavored JUULpods to traditional retail stores as of November 17, 2018, strengthened the age verification of our industry leading site, eliminated our Facebook and Instagram accounts, and are developing new technology to further limit youth access and use. We are committed to working with lawmakers, the Surgeon General, FDA, state Attorneys General, local municipalities, and community organizations as a transparent and responsible partner in this effort."
More education needed:
The one thing school, health, and government officials are all in agreement about is that in order to turn the youth vaping statistics around, more education and awareness on vaping is needed not just for students, but for teachers, staff, parents, and the general public.
Recommended by the Erie County Health Department:
From the CDC:
From the US Surgeon General:
WATCH PART 1: "My kid doesn't vape..." Well, their friends do.
WATCH PART 2: Vaping in schools: Symptom of the bigger problem