ORLANDO, Fla. — Walmart is the latest retailer to end cigarette sales in some stores in Florida and several other states alongside CVS, which stopped selling them in 2014, and Target, which stopped selling them in 1996.
“We are always looking at ways to meet our customers’ needs while still operating an efficient business,” said spokesperson Charles Crowson. “As a result of our ongoing focus on the tobacco category, we have made the business decision to discontinue the sale of tobacco in select stores.”
Evidence suggests this move could decrease cigarette use overall, but cigarette smoking isn’t the biggest nicotine-related concern in some age groups, experts say.
A 2015 study found that living in an area with fewer places to buy cigarettes reduced the odds that young adults would start smoking, suggesting that Walmart’s move could reduce cigarette use, said first author Jennifer Cantrell in an email.
“Having a large retailer that also happens to be one of the largest pharmacies finally take one of the most deadly consumer products in our history off its shelves is certainly a positive step forward for health,” Cantrell said.
In Florida, 32,300 adults die from smoking-related illnesses each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Cigarettes are the most commonly used form of tobacco among adults, the CDC reports, but youth tend to use electronic vapor products, known as e-cigarettes. Vaping is less harmful than smoking, but it is still not safe and can deliver even more nicotine than a cigarette, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.
Walmart stopped selling e-cigarettes in 2019, said Laura Corbin, bureau chief for Tobacco Free Florida, the Florida Department of Health’s tobacco education, cessation and prevention program. The company attributed its decision to “growing federal, state and local regulatory complexity and uncertainty regarding e-cigarettes” at the time.
“Florida has been so successful at reducing youth cigarette smoking,” Corbin said. “But the rise in e-cigarette use can threaten the progress we’ve made.”
2021 law blocked local rules
Florida has below-average tobacco use and devotes above-average funding to its paid tobacco education campaign and Quitlines, according to CDC data. Tobacco Free Florida in 2022 launched Live Vape Free, which provides text support and one-on-one coaching to help teens quit by texting VAPEFREE to 873373.
Since Tobacco Free Florida’s 2007 creation, adult cigarette use has gone from 21% in 2006 to 14.8% in 2018, according to the CDC. Youth cigarette use has gone from 10.6% to 1% in 2021, according to state surveys.
However, youth e-cigarette use has skyrocketed during that time. In the 2021 Florida Youth Tobacco Survey, 8% of middle schoolers and 18.3% of high schoolers say they vape.
Janelle Hom, executive director of the American Lung Association in Central Florida, praised Tobacco Free Florida’s efforts to reduce youth tobacco use but said the e-cigarette industry often defeats or hijacks laws meant to curb smoking in the state, carving out exceptions for itself.
A law that took effect Oct. 1, 2021 (SB 1080) was ostensibly intended to curb youth tobacco use, including use of e-cigarettes, by raising the minimum tobacco purchasing age from 18 to 21 in Florida.
The law also had language that set youth tobacco prevention efforts back by years, public health groups, including the American Lung Association, said. It prohibited local governments from creating tobacco and nicotine regulations stronger than those created by the state.
“It’s bad public health policy, and it’s creating a lot of challenges and loopholes where the tobacco industry can step in to capitalize on these products and continue to addict youth and young adults to tobacco,” Hom said.
About 192 local policies that had been enacted in Florida to reduce youth tobacco use were invalidated when the law went into effect, the American Lung Association estimates. A November bill meant to repeal this limitation (HB 6081, SB 1022) died in the Regulatory Reform Subcommittee.
There are also other barriers to quitting in Central Florida that need to be addressed at a local level, Hom said.
In the rural Lake County town of Umatilla, for example, many residents are struggling with poverty and cannot get on the internet to access Tobacco Free Florida’s resources, she explained.
Black communities in Central Florida suffer from disproportionately high tobacco use, particularly of menthol cigarettes, Hom noted. For decades, Big Tobacco has specifically targeted Black communities with ads and price promotions for menthol cigarettes, multiple studies have found, and has targeted other minorities in its promotion of other types of cigarettes, the CDC’s website notes.
“Being able to end the sale of flavored tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes, is going to not only help with the vaping epidemic, but in communities that have long been targeted by the tobacco industry,” Hom said. “We need to give local governments the ability to develop the best laws to protect their citizens and be able to address public health issues... in ways that work best for their communities.”
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