New research pushes for federal measures to prevent minors from buying e-cigarettes online, where most vendors care little for verifying ages of customers.
A study published on Monday found that minors in North Carolina are easily able to get e-cigarettes online. Researchers said federal measures are needed to mandate rigorous age verification for e-cigarette sales.
“Without enforced federal regulations, online vendors have little motivation to verify customer’s age and reject underage buyers, Rebecca Williams, a research associate with the University of North Carolina and lead study author, told the Washington Examiner.
The study comes at a precarious time for regulation of the burgeoning $2 billion-a-year e-cigarette industry. Last April, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a proposed regulation that would ban e-cigarette sales for anyone under 18 alongside other regulations.
North Carolina is among at least 41 states that prohibit sales to minors of e-cigarettes, which resemble real cigarettes but are devices that use a vaporization process to deliver a liquid that contains nicotine and other ingredients. (In popular shorthand, using e-cigarettes is called “vaping.”)
There is no federal ban on selling e-cigarettes or vapor products online, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
The study, sponsored by the University of North Carolina, surveyed 11 nonsmoking minors ranging from 14 to 17 years old as they made supervised e-cigarette purchases from 98 Internet vendors using a credit card.
Researchers found the minors were able to get e-cigarettes from nearly 94 percent of the purchases, with five purchases being cancelled due to age verification.
The study found faults with both the online vendors and the delivery companies that actually ship the product.
Researchers found the delivery companies did not verify the customer ages, and many shipments were simply left at the door. All delivered packages came from shipping companies that say they don’t ship cigarettes to consumers.
None of the e-cigarette vendors complied with North Carolina’s law that requires age verification of e-cigarette purchases, the study said.
North Carolina and Virginia are among the few states that actually mention online sales in their ban for minors.
“Many states have laws that say the minors can’t buy [e-cigarettes] without stating ‘in person or online,’ ” Karmen Hanson, program manager at the National Conference of State Legislatures, told the Washington Examiner.
Williams said federal action is needed to address this issue.
“With drug sites selling age-restricted products there are a lot of issues related to jurisdictions,” she said. “Historically state laws are difficult to enforce when dealing with across state and international lines.”
The study said that legislation similar to the 2010 Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act is needed. The law requires online cigarette vendors to register with the federal government and verify the ages of customers.
Other advocates pushed for greater federal involvement.
“The ease with which this study shows youth are getting their hands on e-cigarettes online highlights the critical need for the FDA to finalize its proposal to regulate all tobacco products, prohibit youth-targeted marketing and eliminate Internet sales of these products to youth,” according to the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, the advocacy arm of the society.
“It reiterates the need for FDA to move forward with proposed regulations on e-cigarettes,” said Paul Billings, senior vice president for advocacy and education for the American Lung Association.
More teens who have never smoked before are turning to e-cigarettes, according to a study from the FDA, University of Georgia and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The 2014 study discovered that kids who never smoked who used e-cigarettes increased from 79,000 in 2011 to more than 263,000 in 2013.
The FDA did not return a request for comment on when it will finalize the proposed regulations. However, it could take two to four years to wade through the hundreds of public comments and research on e-cigarettes, Williams said.
She is optimistic any final regulation will ban sales to minors and restrict online sales.
