Availability of flavoured tobacco in San Francisco Bay Area stores after California's statewide sales restriction.

Abstract

Introduction: Prior to California's law restricting sales of flavoured tobacco, 129 jurisdictions in the state had local sales restrictions. This study assesses compliance with the state law and tests whether time since effective dates of local flavour laws predicted lower odds of a sales violation.

Methods: Between June and August 2024, data collectors completed 332 purchase attempts (215 for menthol cigarettes, 117 for flavoured vapes) in 223 licensed tobacco retailers clustered in San Francisco Bay Area jurisdictions with a comprehensive local law (n=17) and without a local law (n=5). Data collectors were randomly assigned to try to purchase menthol cigarettes or a flavoured vape. Data collectors completed a survey including open-ended items about clerks' responses. Generalised linear mixed models tested for a relationship between time since adoption of local laws and sales violation, adjusting for store type and data collector. Open-ended responses were categorised by theme.

Results: Violation rate was 2.3% for menthol cigarettes and 19.7% for flavoured vapes. Although requests for flavoured vapes were not brand-specific, 83% of purchased vapes were FLUM. Tobacco specialty shops had the highest violation rate. Controlling for store type and data collector, there was no significant relationship between flavoured vape purchase and duration or presence of local law.

Conclusions: Menthol cigarette sales were rare, but sales of flavoured vapes persisted. Targets for further enforcement are tobacco specialty shops and FLUM. Contrary to expectation, duration of local laws was not associated with lower odds of violation, but the sample was limited to San Francisco Bay Area counties.