Legislation being circulated for cosponsorship in Wisconsin would establish a separate tax rate for some alternative tobacco products that are deemed a lower health risk than cigarettes.
Sen. Patrick Testin, R-Stevens Point, and Rep. Chanz Green, R-Grand View, recently sent a memo to other lawmakers seeking support for the bill.
They say standard cigarettes are the leading cause of “preventable disease and death” in the state, causing nearly 8,000 deaths annually and 30% of all cancer deaths in Wisconsin each year, based on figures from the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
Referencing the FDA and other public health authorities, the lawmakers note smokefree alternatives for nicotine are acknowledged to be “at the lower health risk end” compared to combustible cigarettes. In addition to vapes and nicotine pouches, the memo points to the FDA authorizing a heated tobacco product as “appropriate for the protection of public health” as a modified risk tobacco product.
Because these products heat the tobacco but don’t burn it, they have a “much lower risk profile” while replicating the experience of smoking a cigarette, according to the memo.
“Studies submitted to the FDA demonstrated that, while not risk-free, heated tobacco alternatives emit 90 to 95% fewer toxins compared to combustible cigarettes,” the lawmakers wrote.
Still, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids questions claims being made about heated tobacco products, with its website calling them the “tobacco industry’s newest way to keep people addicted to tobacco and attract new users” including young people. The anti-tobacco organization argues that while tobacco companies have marketed these new products as lower risk, the industry “has a long history of making false claims” about the health risks of its products.
Under the legislation, the state’s existing excise tax on cigarettes would apply to products that are defined as a roll of tobacco wrapped in paper or another substance other than tobacco that’s meant to be smoked by burning it. It would also create a separate, lower excise tax for the heated tobacco products.
“We can best support tobacco harm reduction by enacting risk-proportionate taxation, whereby the most harmful products are taxed at the highest rate and lower-risk alternatives are taxed at a much lower rate,” the lawmakers wrote.
The cosponsorship deadline is July 22 at 4 p.m.
See the memo.
