SAFE GC Coalition: State Restrictions on Flavored E-Cigs Needed

Data released in a report from the CDC Foundation and Truth Initiative reveal a 47% increase in e-cigarette unit sales at U.S. retail outlets between 2019 and 2023, with flavor categories like fruit, candy, mint, menthol, and desserts accounting for 80.6% of those sales. The rise in sales highlights the need for more states to adopt comprehensive statewide policies restricting sales of flavored e-cigarettes.

The marked rise highlights the need for more states to adopt comprehensive statewide policies restricting sales of flavored e-cigarettes. In Massachusetts, sales restrictions, as well as a range of effective enforcement measures, reduced sales of flavored e-cigarettes by more than 98 percent in brick-and-mortar retailers. The report explores similar successful efforts in California and New York.

The report, “Monitoring E-Cigarette Trends in the United States: Urgent Action Needed to Protect Kids from Flavored E-Cigarettes,” also finds the most effective policies to restrict sales of flavored e-cigarettes clearly define products and include comprehensive flavored tobacco restrictions without flavor or product exceptions, incorporate community and retailer education and are supported by enforcement.

The 2024 National Youth Tobacco Survey highlighted the importance of continued action to reduce the availability of kid-friendly flavored e-cigarettes, the vast majority of which do not have FDA authorization. Despite these declines in youth use, nearly 40 percent of youth e-cigarette users—more than 620,000 teens—report using e-cigarettes frequently. The rise in e-cigarette sales, particularly those with youth-appealing flavors and graphics, is deeply concerning, especially as manufacturers evolve e-cigarette products to feature gamified devices and increased nicotine strength. However, the data from states like Massachusetts, California and New York demonstrate how comprehensive policies can effectively curb youth access.

Among the report’s highlights are:

• Disposable sales grew: Between 2019 and 2023, sales of disposable e-cigarettes are up more than 500 percent. Studies cited in the report indicate disposable e-cigarettes have become the most common type of device used by young people.
• Flavors surged: Studies quoted in the report found in 2024, 1.63 million youth reported using e-cigarettes over the previous 30 days. Nearly 90 percent of those users consumed one of the many flavored varieties.
• Sales of menthol and cooling flavors increased: According to CDC Foundation research, sales of menthol-flavored e-cigarettes rose more than 175 percent for all e-cigarettes. Sales of e-cigarettes marketed as “clear” (advertised as containing no flavorants but which contain menthol or other synthetic coolants) or other unflavored cooling products (often advertised with the words “naked” or “unflavored”) increased 872 percent between 2020 to 2023.
• Unauthorized products flourish: There are only 34 e-cigarette products in tobacco and menthol flavors authorized by FDA to date. As of March 2024, these 34 products represent 13.7 percent of total dollar sales from brick-and-mortar U.S. retail outlets according to a review of NielsenIQ sales data by researchers at the Truth Initiative.
• Nicotine content rose: Researchers at Truth Initiative found that disposable e-cigarettes can have nicotine levels similar to several cartons of cigarettes, with average nicotine strength increasing 294 percent in the span of five years. The rise in sales of high nicotine e-cigarettes coincided with an increase in the percentage of youth who reported using e-cigarettes frequently or daily from studies cited in the report, raising concerns about youth addiction. In 2024, nearly 30 percent of high school students who are e-cigarette users reported vaping daily as cited in the report.

This report underscores the urgent need for widespread adoption of similar measures to protect young people from the risks associated with e-cigarette use. The progress in states with strong policies underscores the urgent need for more action to swiftly and successfully combat the flavored e-cigarette epidemic among youth across the United States.

Since 2019, the CDC Foundation and its partners—the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Truth Initiative, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and Bloomberg Philanthropies—have conducted research on the sales of tobacco products, e-cigarette use by young people and the effectiveness of flavored e-cigarette restriction policies with the goal of keeping children and teens from accessing these addictive products.

Truth Initiative is America's largest nonprofit public health organization committed to preventing youth and young adult nicotine addiction and empowering quitting for all. Truthinitiative.org.

SAFE, Inc. is the only alcohol and substance abuse prevention, intervention, and education agency in the City of Glen Cove. The Coalition is concerned about all combustible and electronic products and partners with the Glen Cove Youth Bureau and Glen Cove School District Health Education teachers to raise awareness of the need to educate students on the dangers of all tobacco products, reduce youth’s exposure to tobacco marketing at their local retailers, and to protect the public from second-hand and drifting smoke outside while they recreate, dine or even on the worksite grounds.

To learn more about the SAFE Glen Cove Coalition please follow www.facebook.com/safeglencove or to learn more about electronic products visit the Youth and Tobacco Use Page of SAFE’s website to learn more about how E-cigarettes/vaping is detrimental to your health www.safeglencove.org.