A bill that would impose a new state tax on vapor cartridges for electronic cigarettes will be considered soon in an Iowa Senate Committee. The bill was the subject of a recent Senate subcommittee hearing. Michael Triplett is the lobbyist for a group of vapor product retailers called Iowans for Alternatives to Smoking and Tobacco.
Triplett told lawmakers it’s the smoke, not the nicotine, that makes cigarettes deadly. Threase Harms is a lobbyist for a coalition called Clear Air for Everyone. She says cigarettes and e-cigarettes are kindred cousins and vaping liquid has been linked to a condition called “popcorn lung” and it contains chemicals like formaldehyde.
Other groups like the American Cancer Society applaud raising taxes on vaping products but recommend some of the money raised go toward programs that discourage kids from vaping or smoking cigarettes. Amy Campbell, a lobbyist for the Iowa Behavioral Health Association, says school-based programs are essential.
Senator Mike Klemish, a Republican from Spillville, is the bill’s author.
Klemish says he sees a lot of kids vaping and he worries the nicotine in the vaping liquid will be the gateway to them moving on and smoking cigarettes. His bill also imposes a new tax on nicotine pouches, which are wedged inside a person’s bottom lip like smokeless tobacco.
