A new working paper by a group of economics and health policy researchers has found that taxing vaping products and smoking products that contain nicotine at the same rate would lead to an increase in smoking, damaging public health rather than improving it.
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The paper, which was published in the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), suggests that a law proposed by U.S. Senator Dick Durbin that would force all nicotine products to be taxed at the same rate in the United States would reduce youth vaping just a little more than it would lead to an increase in youth smoking.
Studies have shown that banning flavoured vaping products with the goal of reducing youth vaping rates by diminishing the appeal of vaping products through the restricting of flavours may lead to an increase in youth smoking rates.
The NBER paper's authors wrote that their results suggest that Senator Durbin's proposed bill "may harm youth health in the United States".
"If ENDS are substantially safer products as suggested by several major government-commissioned reviews, our results suggest that the proposed bill may harm youth health in the United States."
Public Health England's e-cigarette evidence review has found e-cigarettes to likely be significantly less harmful than smoking conventional cigarettes.
According to their research, the paper's authors estimate that doubling e-cig taxes would reduce youth use by 12% while raising current cigarette use by 8%, with large increases for regular cigarette users.
So while the intent of Durban's proposed bill to raise taxes on vaping products in the U.S. may be designed to decrease youth vaping, the paper's authors find that would have the unintended consequence of raising youth smoking rates.
A study led by Abigal Friedman, assistant professor of health policy at Yale School of Public Health and one of the working paper's authors, found that youth smoking increased in San Francisco when the city's voters passed a measure banning the sale of flavoured vape liquids.
In light of the study's findings, Friedman said that the findings "suggest a need for caution" when regulating vaping products with the goal of improving public health. Friedman added that even "well-intentioned" laws that increase youth smoking may threaten public health.
"Even if it is well-intentioned, a law that increases youth smoking could pose a threat to public health."
