Christopher Hare started the work week with just 20 items on his shelves. Yesterday, he had upwards of 500.

Overnight, Hare, owner of Nomad Vapors, stripped his Greensburg and Harrison City stores down to the few vape products permitted in the state’s new directory.

“It was the most painful thing in my life pulling all that,” said Hare, 32, of Trafford, who started his business when he was 24.

“That's all your money in a store like this. Your money is in your product.”

After Act 57 was passed last year, the Office of Attorney General built a directory of approved electronic nicotine delivery system products. When enforcement of the law began Monday, businesses across the state were scrambling to remove their now non-compliant merchandise — less than a week after a similar ban on skill games took effect.

“This law is about keeping harmful products out of the hands of both children and adults who may not realize what they are consuming,” Attorney General Dave Sunday said in a statement.

The new restrictions could reduce the number of young people getting hooked on the products, public health experts say, but enforcement is expected to be difficult — as it has been in other states with similar bans — limiting the new law’s effectiveness.

“These are really hard to implement and enforce,” Douglas Levy, director of policy research at the Tobacco Research and Treatment Center at Massachusetts General Hospital, said of similarly designed vape laws. “The practical impact is going to be small.”

Enforcement setbacks

After the products are submitted or approved by the Food and Drug Administration, suppliers can apply to be included in the directory, Sunday said. Products excluded from the directory are prohibited from being sold. Currently, there are 48 e-cigarettes authorized by the FDA.

“Verifying that can be challenging,” Levy said. “It's relying on the manufacturers to self-report.”

The Office of Attorney General plans to conduct targeted operations across the state to enforce the law, officials said. During inspections, the office will provide education regarding compliance and penalties will be graduated for repeat offenders.

According to the Office of Attorney General, implementing the legislation will have an initial one-time cost of $98,280 with annual ongoing personnel and operating costs equaling approximately $1.3 million, the House Committee on Appropriations noted.

The Office of the Attorney General did not respond to further questions from the Post-Gazette, including about its enforcement efforts.

In practice, enforcement logistics for directory laws are difficult, Levy said.

“Envision somebody going to a store and trying to verify that the products on the shelves are those that are authorized for sale by the state,” Levy said. “If that list is really long, it's going to be very time-consuming to do those inspections … that just takes a lot of person power.”

Findings in a recent study of similar laws in other states suggest that such regulations are “not associated with lasting declines in sales of flavored e-cigarettes” not authorized by the FDA and could “divert resources from evidence-based tobacco control strategies.”

“The first states that have passed similar laws have not seen lasting declines, especially in the disposable products that teens use the most,” said Dr. Ashley L. Merianos, a professor in the School of Human Services at the University of Cincinnati.

“If the goal is to protect teens from becoming the next generation of tobacco users, enforcing [tobacco age requirement laws] at every tobacco sale will likely do more than the approved list.”

The state’s directory law comes amid a crackdown on the proliferation of electronic cigarettes, namely through zoning ordinances.

Earlier this year, new zoning requirements were passed to restrict the number of vape shops in the city. Under the new regulations, no more vape shops can open up in the Golden Triangle, and businesses are prohibited from operating within 1,000 feet of a primary or secondary school.

Youth vaping

Vape and e-cigarette products are often marketed toward children, Sunday said, and many are not approved by the FDA.

In the United States, young people use vapes more than any other tobacco product and the use of nicotine can harm the parts of adolescents’ brains that control attention, learning and mood, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

State Rep. Jeanne McNeill, D-Lehigh, who sponsored the bill, said the legislation will protect consumers, especially kids, from vapor products that have flooded the Pennsylvania market.

“It is a reasonable bill that puts in place reasonable requirements to ensure consumer safety,” she said.

Christine Larkin, research program coordinator University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, said there are limits to what the law will achieve.

“It doesn't necessarily ban flavors specifically, which is what appeals most to our underage citizens, but still very important in order to protect and also limit the use and initiation of smoking products,” she said.

“I don't think this is going to stop people who are already vaping, but it's going to limit who starts to vape.”

Even as access tightens, policy experts warn the legislation could have unintended consequences.

Such laws can shift the demand to online sellers, neighboring states or under-the-counter sales, said Merianos, who is also a research affiliate member of the Thirdhand Smoke Research Consortium.

“Another concern is that adults who switched from combustible tobacco products like cigarettes to vaping products may go back to smoking,” she said.

“Demand for vaping products does not disappear when the non-approved products are pulled from shelves.”

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