Californians aren’t throwing away their flavored tobacco just yet despite the flavor ban in effect. Photo credit: Wil540, Creative Commons 4.0
A new independent study found that California’s flavored tobacco and vapor products ban has not stopped people from using them as the products continue to make up a significant share of California’s market ten months into the ban.
Three years ago, the state passed Senate Bill 793 banning flavored tobacco product sales, but the law did not take immediate effect until last December, after it was brought before voters on the ballot last November and voters upheld the law.
A study from the WSPM Group now found that there is still a large percentage of menthol products in circulation in California. The group collected 15,000 discarded cigarette packs and 4,529 discarded e-vapor packages during May 1-June 28 in 10 cities in the state. They found that menthol cigarettes still make up over 14% of the state’s cigarette market after the ban. “Menthol work-around” products that have non-menthol descriptors and similar packaging make up another 7% of the market, combining into 21.1% in total.
Of the samples collected by the group, 27.6% were non-domestic tobacco products intended for use outside the US, and 45% of the products were not taxed by the state.
For vapor products, the group found that 97.9% of the samples collected were flavored products.
The city with the highest number of menthol-containing product packs (30.9% menthol cigarette products, 11% menthol work-around products) was Oakland, followed by Stockton (24.7% menthol or menthol work-around products).