Is Big Tobacco Using Vapes to Hook Teens?

Tobacco companies are using social media influencers, bright packaging and fruity flavors to lure new customers to vaping, and state lawmakers heard Thursday that they appear to be targeting teenagers.

Flavors like mango, cucumber and creme brulee sound delectable and contribute to widespread use, along with easy access from older siblings and third-party vendors, said Suhaas Reddy Bonkur, a Georgia Tech student.

“It’s super easy for them and very convenient to just take a hit, maybe it’s as simple as grabbing a snack after school,” said the fourth-year biomedical student, who is a member of the American Heart Association’s state advocacy committee. “And this easy access normalizes its behavior and fuels the addiction.”

A medical expert testified about the cornucopia of health risks for young people who vape — risks that science can “extrapolate” from cigarette use.

“They include things like various respiratory illnesses and pneumonias, worsening asthma as well as the risk of developing asthma,” said Dr. Mary Ellen Fain of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. “Lots of behavioral problems like ADHD, antisocial behavior, middle ear infections that can cause hearing impairment.”

Thursday’s hearing of the House Study Committee on the Costs and Effects of Smoking was the second in a series that started last month. The first hearing focused on smoking and Georgia’s exceedingly low cigarette tax. At 37 cents a pack, it is well below the national average of $1.97. Only Missouri, at 17 cents, charges less.

Testimony Thursday revealed a similar tax policy for vaping. Georgia and 32 other states plus Washington, D.C., have a vape tax policy, said Danny Kanso, an analyst with the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute.

“Among those 33 states, we are at the very bottom,” said Kanso, who said Georgia taxes the product at 5 cents per milliliter while the national average is 82 cents.

No one from the industry spoke this time or at last month’s hearing.

Advocates at both hearings proposed raising the tax rate on tobacco products. They also advised more sales restrictions and cessation programs.

Bonkur, the Tech student, lamented the recent defunding of Georgia’s Tobacco Use Prevention Program, a victim of federal cuts.

The state health department said last month that core tobacco and vaping prevention and cessation programs were still operating, but Bonkur said it was a loss of “instrumental” prevention work, adding that the state should invest more into it.

These temporary study committees take deep dives on complicated topics, then advise the broader General Assembly. No specific tobacco legislation has emerged so far, but this committee will meet one more time to discuss concrete proposals ahead of next year’s legislative session.

The chairwoman, Rep. Sharon Cooper, R-Marietta, who also leads the House’s standing Public and Community Health Committee, lamented that Congress omitted menthol when it banned cigarette flavors in 2009, suggesting a direction she might want to take.

Rep. Lee Hawkins, R-Gainesville, chairman of the House Health Committee, another key lawmaker on the topic, said he would like to see more transparency requirements for vape product packaging.

“I would like to include in there that the ingredients of these vaping products must be disclosed,” said Hawkins, a dentist who has also been leading a summer study committee on cancer care access. “Because you’re putting all kinds of things in these vaping products, and I think the public and the user should know.”