Despite ban, online tobacco sales flourish

Despite California’s efforts to stop the sale of flavored tobacco products, U.C. San Diego researchers say consumers have discovered a loophole: online shopping.
In 2022, Senate Bill 793 went into effect, prohibiting the sale of flavored tobacco products — making California the second state in the U.S. after Massachusetts to pass the broad law.
The bill was prompted by the growing sales of an assortment of “kid-friendly flavors” such as cotton candy and bubble gum as well as the high rates of teen use of e-cigarettes.
E-cigarettes are still considered a relatively new product — sold in the U.S. for about a decade — so their impact on health is still being researched, according to the American Lung Association. However, in 2018 the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine reported that e-cigarettes can cause health problems, including a risk for coughing, wheezing and an increase in asthma in youths. It was also found that e-cigarettes contain a number of dangerous chemicals including acetaldehyde, acrolein and formaldehyde. These aldehydes can cause lung disease and heart disease.
In 2022, the Food and Drug Administration reported that e-cigarette use among youths as its top concern. In its 2022 National Youth Tobacco Survey, the agency found that more than 2.5 million U.S. middle and high school students used e-cigarettes. The same data found that e-cigarette users preferred flavored products, with fruit flavors being the most popular, followed by candy, desserts or other flavors.
The most recent version of that national survey reported that 2.1 million youths use e-cigarettes, with a decline in high school students using the product.
Several California counties, including Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento, adopted local bans on flavored tobacco long before the statewide law took effect.