Dear Representative:
Utah members of the Consumer Advocates for Smoke-free Alternatives Association (CASAA) have asked us to contact members of the House Business and Labor Committee requesting that you vote AGAINST H.B. 170 - Tobacco and Nicotine Product Amendments. Most members of our organization are former smokers who tried for years to stop smoking. They were finally able to do so by switching to an electronic cigarette or a smokeless tobacco product such as snus.
A major strategy of public health improvement is harm reduction. For example, there is no way to eliminate all risks of injury to motorcycle riders. However, requiring motorcycle riders to wear a helmet can reduce the severity of head injuries. Tobacco harm reduction describes actions taken to reduce the health risks associated with using nicotine.
Almost all of the tobacco-related diseases are caused by smoke. Inhaling the tar, carbon monoxide, particulates, and thousands of chemical compounds that are created by the process of combustion is the direct cause of lung disease, cancers, and cardiovascular diseases attributed to tobacco. Contrary to popular belief, nicotine does not cause these diseases, but nicotine is the reason people keep smoking cigarettes.
When smokers switch to a less harmful alternative such as an electronic cigarette, a modern smokeless tobacco product, or medicinal nicotine products, their disease risks are greatly reduced.
Cigar smokers experience only 50% of the diseases that cigarette smokers contract, simply because cigar smoke is not inhaled. The nicotine is absorbed through the mucus membranes of the mouth. Older smokeless tobacco products such as chewing tobacco do not cause lung disease, but they do increase the risks of mouth and throat cancers over that of non-tobacco users. Still, smokers experience throat and mouth cancer at about double the rate.
The naturally-occurring tobacco carcinogens have been reduced to miniscule amounts in modern smokeless tobacco products such as snus, a type of moist snuff. Experts estimate that switching to a modern smokeless tobacco product reduces smoking-related disease risks by up to 99%. In Sweden, snus has been studied for decades. Research shows that snus users live just as long as former smokers who stopped all use of tobacco. Snus users have no increased risks of cancer, lung disease, or heart disease over abstinent former smokers. The smoking rate for Swedish men is the lowest of any country in the world.
Electronic cigarettes deliver a small amount of nicotine via a vapor, rather than smoke. Electronic cigarette vapor contains no more carcinogens or toxins than FDA-approved nicotine products such as patches and gum. However, smokers find electronic cigarettes to be more acceptable than patches and gum as a permanent replacement for smoking. Surveys show smoking-abstinence success rates that range from 40% to over 80% for those who switch to electronic cigarettes, and 90% of electronic cigarette consumers report that their health has improved since switching to vapor.
Only 16.7% of electronic cigarette users have never tried a non-tobacco flavor, 18.2% use more pleasant flavors occasionally, and 51.9% use pleasant flavors regularly, often, or always. Many believe that the more pleasant flavors help to extinguish any taste for smoking, which would explain why those who have switched to these products do not experience cravings to smoke. Similarly, a large proportion of the smokeless tobacco products sold in the U.S. are flavored, and regular users of smokeless tobacco seldom relapse to smoking.
Section 10, Section 76-10-3003 (lines 428 to 432) of HB 170 would ban sales of flavored smokeless tobacco products, cigars, and electronic cigarettes, thereby making the products less effective as reduced harm alternatives to smoking.
Section 13, section 76-10-3006 (lines 464 to 501) of HB 170 would require face-to-face sales of electronic cigarettes, which would greatly limit access to this life-saving class of products. Requiring only face-to-face sales is burdensome, especially in a state where many people have to travel a substantial distance to reach a densely populated urban center. In addition, such a requirement will be expensive and difficult to enforce.
Section 13, Section 76-10-3008 (lines 521-529) of HB 170 would ban the sale of e-cigarettes without an off switch. The vast majority of electronic cigarette models are activated by an internal electronic switch when the user inhales and the unit automatically turns off when the user stops inhaling. It is unclear whether H.B. 170 would consider this automatic feature to be a switch, or whether the bills author expected to see an external manual switch.
If the objective is to improve public health, then it makes no sense to erect legal barriers that reduce access to products that do not deliver the harmful components of cigarette smoke. Please Vote AGAINST H.B 170.
