The Impact of Recent National Policies and Health Outbreaks on U.S. E-Cigarette Sales

Abstract

We conduct interrupted time-series analysis to study the impacts of national policies and two health outbreaks on e-cigarette retail sales in the U.S. We find little evidence that the national policies were associated with sustained reductions in total e-cigarettes sales. When national policies restricted the sales of certain flavors, the drop in that flavor category’s sales was offset by increases in sales in the remaining flavor categories. In contrast, after an outbreak of lung injuries apparently linked to vaping, total e-cigarette sales fell sharply, and then remained flat during COVID-19.