Legendary columnist H.L. Mencken once observed: “For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.”
We would not suggest the legislation sponsored by Congressmen Tom Suozzi and Peter King that takes aim at vaping and smoking fits in this category.
But Suozzi’s legislation, like nearly two dozen other measures introduced since the beginning of the year to curb the appeal and availability of electronic cigarettes, does raise concerns of overkill and unintended consequences.
This is not to say that officials like Suozzi – and Gov. Andrew Cuomo – are not to take any action. Just that they should be careful when they do.
Nearly 1,300 people have been sickened and 29 have died, including a 17-year-old from New York, as a result of vaping-related lung injuries.
That is a large number and should be of serious concern. Still, that number is dwarfed by deaths attributed to opioids, firearms, alcohol, cigarettes and bad diet.
Thanks to a strong public health response opioid deaths have seen a large decline in the last two years but the death toll is still way too high.
Firearm deaths? Sadly the carnage continues because of inaction at the federal level – offset somewhat by strong responses in states like New York. Still, in the past year, 39,000 deaths have been attributed to firearms.
Cigarette smoking? It is responsible for more than 480,000 deaths per year in the United States, including more than 41,000 deaths resulting from secondhand smoke exposure, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Vaping, which heats nicotine (extracted from tobacco), flavorings and other chemicals to create a water vapor you can inhale, is less harmful than tobacco cigarettes, which contain 7,000 chemicals, many of which are toxic, according to John Hopkins Medicine.
Which is not to say that vaping is not bad for your health.
Nicotine is the primary agent in both regular cigarettes and e-cigarettes, and it is highly addictive. It is also a toxic substance that raises your blood pressure and spikes adrenaline, which increases your heart rate and the likelihood of having a heart attack.
Adding to concerns is the appeal to high school students. The U.S. surgeon general reported that e-cigarette use among high school students had increased by 900 percent and 40 percent of young e-cigarette users had never smoked regular tobacco.
This is what was behind Cuomo’s decision to issue an emergency ban of flavored electronic cigarettes intended, in part, to attract young smokers.
To their credit, the legislation proposed by Suozzi and King is at least consistent in addressing both traditional cigarettes and e-cigarettes by banning flavors for both and tripling the federal taxes on them from $1 to $3.
“The bottom line is: It’s a revenue producer, but it’s more to discourage people especially kids, from smoking and vaping,” Suozzi said in an interview with Newsday. “And it’s proven, it’s worked. I’ve seen it work in New York.”
Well, sort of.
At $4.35, New York has the highest tax per pack of cigarettes and the ninth-lowest rate among states of adult smokers.
Not exactly irrefutable proof, but not bad. Still, we wonder whether many more lives would be saved by adding $2 to the cost of a bullet.
We are also concerned that this would be yet another tax that falls heaviest on the poor.
The legislation proposed by Suozzi and King would help pay for another provision in the bill: boosting the budget of the CDC’s anti-smoking office from $221 million to $500 million.
This is a good idea, but we wonder why it took 1,300 people sickened and 29 dying from vaping when traditional cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 deaths per year.
The legislation, like other efforts to curtail cigarettes, both traditional and electronic, faces opposition from lawmakers representing tobacco-growing states, the tobacco industry and the vaping industry.
They argue that it is already illegal for teens to purchase vapor products and teen use can be better curbed by stricter marketing standards and stronger enforcement of the laws already on the books – an argument eerily similar to what the gun industry has used for years.
Critics of the legislation also point out that it could hurt the small delis and shops that sell e-cigarette products and even result in an underground market for illegal and potentially dangerous flavored pods.
Suozzi’s response was: “This is killing kids and killing people. We have to do everything we can to discourage it.”
This is a laudable sentiment.
But is the toll it would take on small businesses worth it? Especially when more deadly hazards go untouched.
The legislation proposed by Suozzi and King is not wrong. But it doesn’t feel totally right either.
