Nation’s First Comprehensive Youth Prevention and Public Health Regulation of E-Cigarettes to Have Initial Hearing (HB 1645)
The nation’s first bill proposing a comprehensive youth prevention and public health protection program responding to rapid growth of e-cigarette use and youth addiction will be heard in the Washington State House Commerce and Gaming Committee on Monday, March 16, 2015 at 1:30 PM in House Hearing Room C.
HB 1645, requested by Governor Jay Inslee and Attorney General Bob Ferguson, was developed over the past year by Prime Sponsor Representative Gerry Pollet (D-46, Seattle) working with experts from the University of Washington School of Public Health, pediatricians and other medical doctors, Washington’s Secretary of Health and Department of Health, local public health officials from across Washington State and many health research and advocacy organizations, who will be testifying Monday.
“Addiction to e-cigarettes is an epidemic amongst our teenagers,” said Representative Pollet, prime sponsor of HB 1645, who is a parent of a teenager and instructor at the University of Washington’s School of Public Health. “You deserve to know what toxic and carcinogenic chemicals are in e-cigarettes which many consumers, particularly teenagers and young adults, are being misled into mistakenly believing are safe because they are marketed to youth.”
One reason for the targeting of teenagers and young adults with flavors such as bubble gum and razzleberry and marketing that looks like big tobacco’s ad campaigns before regulation to stop ads, is because brains stop forming the nicotine receptors which increase addiction in the early 20s. According to a UW School of Public Health research paper, which provided a framework for many of the elements of HB 1645:
“Adult brains (ages 26 and older) are generally unable to create these nicotine receptors. As a consequence, virtually all daily smokers will have smoked their first cigarette before the age of 26, and nearly 90 percent will have started before the age of eighteen.”
Despite a King County Public Health rule barring sales of e-cigarettes to minors, over a fifth of high school seniors in King County now smoke or vape e-cigarettes regularly according to the “Healthy Youth Survey” released this past Thursday, March 12, 2015 by Public Health – Seattle King County. “To prevent youth addiction, the new survey data shows we must stop advertising aimed at youth, properly put on warning and content labels, and increase the cost of e-cigarettes, as we did with cigarettes,” said Pollet.
HB 1645 is the first legislation proposed in the nation to:
- Label whether e-cigarettes have carcinogens and toxic chemicals such as formaldehyde which may be inhaled based on testing;
- Uniformly disclose the nicotine content of e-cigarettes;
- Bar flavoring which is aimed at youth;
- Bar internet sales;
- Require sales of e-cigarettes to be under the same rules as cigarettes, and have a low retailer license fee to pay for enforcement to ensure that retailers do not sell to minors.
- Tax e-cigarettes at the same rate as “other tobacco products,” which is fair since the industry advertises that e-cigarettes are a nicotine containing alternative to smoking.
“E-cigarettes are so cheap now – at just a fifth of the cost of a pack of cigarettes – that we can’t stem youth access unless we raise the price,” said Pollet. “Under HB 1645, e-cigarettes will still be one third to one half the cost of a pack of cigarettes, continuing to give adults who want to switch from smoking cigarettes a strong financial incentive.”
Additionally, HB 1645 would require childproof packaging, although as Rep. Pollet notes, “due to poisoning of young children from ingesting e-cigarette liquids, the industry already knows that it has to use childproof packaging to avoid massive legal liabilities. It’s sad that it has taken deaths and poisonings to get the e-cigarette industry to agree to that simple step.”
A University of Washington School of Public Health comprehensive review of public health research on e-cigarette health impacts, toxic ingredients, youth addiction, marketing to youth and lack of efficacy as a smoking cessation tool is available and will be distributed at the hearing.