E-Cigarettes in Hawaii

US - Hawaii: House Bill 1570 passed its final reading yesterday on a 36-15 vote. The bill to ban the sale of all flavoured tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, combustible menthol cigarettes and flavoured cigars, has now been passed by both chambers of the Legislature and requires only the signature of governor David Ige to become law.

US – Hawaii: A new batch of bills have recently been introduced in Hawaii, all of them shown in our US regulatory tracker. One of those bills, House Bill 1570, which would ban the sale of flavoured tobacco or synthetic nicotine products, has raised some concerns. Some representatives reportedly described some of the amendments made by the House Health, Human Services and Homelessness Committee as “poison pills”, which would jeopardise the bill’s passing. It was originally supported by the state attorney general and the Hawaii Department of Health (DOH), but has lost their support following the amendments. The lack of support by the enforcement agencies may end up in a veto by the governor, should the bill pass as it now stands. Among the amendments added, one requires the health department to implement a standardised testing process to detect flavours; advocates say this is not found in other jurisdictions and is not necessary, while the DOH found it unreasonable.