Online vaping sellers are failing to comply with regulations to stop children buying their products, a new report warns.
Researchers found that online e-cigarette retailers are consistently failing to comply with laws aimed at preventing the sale of vaping products to youth.
Regulations on age verification, transport methods and taste restrictions are all being ignored, according to the US report.
Researchers asked 16 people to buy flavored vape products online and have them delivered to their homes in San Diego County, California.
Of the 156 transactions attempted, 73% were processed and 67% submitted.
Only 1% of shoppers had their IDs scanned while more than three in four shoppers (78%) reported no interaction with delivery personnel.
Three out of 20 shoppers (15%) spoke to delivery personnel, but no IDs were checked.
And 6% of shoppers had their IDs checked but not scanned, according to findings published in the journal JAMA.
Sales restrictions on flavored tobacco were introduced in eight US states and 392 cities or counties in March of this year, but some of them do not cover e-commerce.
For example, California Senate Bill (SB) 793 of 2022 banned the sale of flavored tobacco products but left the e-commerce restrictions vague.
Because of the ambiguity in California law, the research team aimed to test differences in compliance with local e-tobacco regulations.
Eight buyers were from the city of San Diego, where an ordinance restricts the sale of flavored tobacco products, including online sales.
The other eight were from other San Diego County communities that do not have the same restrictions. Delivery did not differ significantly between buyers in the two jurisdictions.
The online purchases also violated the Prevention of Online Sales of E-Cigarettes to Children Act, a federal law that prohibits the use of the United States Postal Service (USPS) to ship vaping products and requires age verification and identification scanning during delivery .
Dr Eric Leas, of the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Life Sciences at the University of California, San Diego, said: “There are legacy surveillance systems in place that help enforce laws in brick-and-mortar stores, but we we do not have a system for online sellers.
“The results of this study highlight the need for greater oversight and enforcement of online tobacco sellers.
“Online e-cigarette sales are the largest and fastest growing sector of the tobacco industry.
“We need to assess tobacco retail policies and ensure they cover e-commerce and monitor the market to improve enforcement.”
In a 2023 study published in the journal Tobacco Control, Dr Leas reported that after the implementation of SB-793, online shopping inquiries were 194% higher than expected for cigarettes and 162% higher than expected for vape products.
As a result, to strengthen state tobacco surveillance programs – including online sales of flavored tobacco products – California lawmakers recently passed SB-1230, citing Dr Leas’s Tobacco Control study.
The law will enter into force on January 1, 2025.
Dr Leas added: “This research is piloting an online compliance monitoring system that local health departments can emulate as a routine surveillance system to strengthen enforcement of public health laws designed to reduce the sale of tobacco products to minors.”
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