Utilization of Synar funding to conduct e-cigarette inspections/
surveillance – 1/7/15

Q: Are there any states utilizing Synar funding to conduct e-cigarette inspections/ surveillance? If so, what is your administrative procedure and process?

A:

1. Utah: During first quarter of the 2014 fiscal year, Utah conducted a round of e-cigarette compliance check as a pilot project to gather baseline data for e-cigarette retailers. Six of our 12 local health districts participated. These checks were funded with the same funding that regular tobacco compliance checks are funded with. In UT most of our health districts are funded to do 3 checks per year so they substituted their regular checks in the first quarter for an e-cigarette check. We have two LHDs who have been using county funds to do e-cigarette compliance checks and several LHDs who have very recently passed local licensing regulations for e-cigarette retailers that include a licensing fee that will be used to cover the cost of one compliance check per year.
    
2. Washington: Well, since Synar is an unfunded mandate and there is no Synar funding that may be a difficult question to answer. We will be introducing a bill to license retailers and do compliance checks. We don't use our current funding just because it is so limited and we don't want to send the message that we're swimming in compliance check funding. A couple counties have done checks with concerning results. King County (Seattle) found an RVR about twice as high as they had for cigarette compliance violations.

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