Australian Study: Tobacco Taxes May Lead to Increased Vaping Rates

New research by the University of Queensland has concluded that while most youngsters who experiment with vaping don't develop an addiction, the way tobacco products are taxed may be linked with higher e-cigarette use.

Diane Caruana

December 6, 2022

Vaping rates tended to be lower in low-and middle-income countries.

Titled, “Association between the implementation of tobacco control policies and adolescent vaping in 44 lower-middle, upper-middle, and high-income countries,” the study analyzed data from nearly 152,000 teens in 47 countries who participated in a World Health Organization (WHO) Tobacco Survey between 2015 and 2018.

Lead study author Dr Gary Chan from UQ’s National Centre for Youth Substance Use Research said the UQ study found that vaping rates tended to be lower in low-and middle-income countries.

The study also examined whether there was a link between the number of adolescents using e-cigarettes and the WHO’s tobacco policies (monitoring, smoke-free policies, cessation programs, warning about the dangers of tobacco, advertising bans and taxation), and found that this was indeed the case.

“We found that higher tobacco taxes were associated with higher levels of youth vaping,” said Dr Chan. “This could suggest that young people in countries with a higher tobacco tax might be substituting traditional cigarettes with e-cigarettes.”

Meanwhile, a 2021 study published in the Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, looking at the effects of traditional cigarette and e-cigarette tax rates on adult tobacco consumption rates, found that increased tax rates on vaping products are directly proportional to increased smoking rates.

Vapes and Cigarettes are economic substitutes

The study titled, “The effects of traditional cigarette and e-cigarette tax rates on adult tobacco product use,” analysed the effects of taxes on traditional cigarettes and vaping products, on use patterns of these same products among adults in the United States. The researchers examined data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), over the period from 2011 to 2018.

The research team found that higher taxes on traditional cigarettes reduced adult smoking and increased adult e-cigarette use. Similarly, higher e-cigarette tax rates increased traditional cigarette use and reduced vaping.

“Cross-tax effects imply that the products are economic substitutes. Our results suggest that a proposed national e-cigarette tax of $1.65 per millilitre of vaping liquid would raise the proportion of adults who smoke cigarettes daily by approximately 1 percentage point, translating to 2.5 million extra adult daily smokers compared to the counterfactual of not having the tax,” read the study Abstract.