Do higher tobacco taxes result in higher vaping?
Chan GCK, Gartner C, Lim C, et al. Association between the implementation of tobacco control policies and adolescent vaping in 44 lower-middle, upper-middle, and high-income countries. Addiction. (Early View) 11 May 2022 .“Authors aimed to (i) estimate the prevalence of adolescent vaping in 47 lower-middle, upper-middle, and high-income countries, and (ii) test the association between implementation of World Health Organisation (WHO) tobacco control policies and adolescent e-cigarette use (also known as vaping) in 44 countries where implementation data were available.
In 47 lower-middle, upper-middle and high-income countries from 2015 to 2018, ~1 in 12 (8.6%) adolescents reported vaping in the past 30 days, but the prevalence of frequent vaping was low (1 in 60; 1.7%). A higher tobacco tax was associated with higher adolescent vaping.” https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/add.15892
Comment: Tax policy is a major factor in smoking behavior among adolescents. If conventional cigarettes are expensive, adolescents will go to alternative smoking like e-cigarettes. If e-cigarettes were taxed as high or higher than conventional cigarettes, the high taxation, high vaping association would likely be limited. Note that e-cigarette sales by mail are an important way tobacco companies circumvent high taxes.
Stephen Hamann
